Dr. Brett Hoffman, a senior member of the University of Wisconsin Missing in Action Recovery and Identification Project, will share the history of the project and dive into work accomplished so far, as well as future developments, in his presentation at the EAA Aviation Museum on Thursday, January 18, at 7 p.m., kicking off the 2024 lineup of the Aviation Adventure Speaker Series.
Brett is an anthropological archaeologist whose research background and interests include Bronze Age Eurasia and ancient metallurgy. He earned his master’s and Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has taught at various UW campuses over the last decade.
In recent years, Brett joined the University of Wisconsin Missing in Action Recovery and Identification Project (UW MIA RIP). “It’s all focused on the mission of identifying and recovering, and then bringing home the remains of U.S. service members,” explained Brett. “[The project] pulls in people with a variety of expertise ranging from historians to anthropologists, to people working in biomedical fields.”
The UW MIA RIP was the first academic institution to partner with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), the organization tasked with providing full accounting of all missing U.S. service members. “Through archival research and working closely with the DPAA, we try to use fundamental archeological principles and techniques to find evidence that allows us to correlate a crash site with a specific aircraft. Then we try to carefully excavate and analyze the material from the crash site to try to find objects that will allow us to identify any service members that were not recovered from that crash during the war.”
For the last several years, the UW MIA project has worked on their fourth recovery assignment at a WWII crash site in Belgium, which Brett will cover in his presentation. To date, the team has successfully identified and returned three service members to their home for burial, bringing closure to countless individuals.
“Learning the stories and the impacts that these events from years ago still have on the individual lives, families, and then the fabric of the community is incredible. There are stories of entire communities turning out for ceremonies to honor the return of service members back home after decades. … There are still empty spaces within families as a result of these events,” shared Brett. “It’s been really rewarding to use the small set of skills I’ve learned over the years in my professional career and training to have this tangible impact on people’s lives.”
Thursday’s presentation is free for EAA members and youths 5 and under, and just $5 for nonmembers.
Image Courtesy of Dr. Brett Hoffman