Anthropologist Scours Jungles for MIAs

[GreenPartyVoter]

KHONG TROI MOUNTAIN, Vietnam (AP) - For the past 12 years, C. Elliott Moore II has camped in mosquito, leech and snake-infested sites across Southeast Asia, searching for a sliver of bone, a tooth, a dog tag - anything left of U.S. soldiers still missing nearly 30 years after the Vietnam War.

A forensic anthropologist with the military's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, Moore decides where to dig and for how long in conditions plagued by erosion, scavenging and even bone-eating acidic soil.

For the 1,800 American families who long for answers and a small piece of their loved ones to bury, he is often the last hope.

"Vietnam was the war of my generation. So many paid the ultimate sacrifice to come over here and wage war for American policy of that time and, of course, it wasn't a very happy ending," says Moore, 53, smoking a Marlboro while perched on a thick root overlooking an excavation site.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040621/D83BJ0DO0.html