MiTasol
2nd Lieutenant
From my inbox today
From: Chief Rick Stone & Family Foundation <[email protected]>
Date: 17/8/18 10:40 am (GMT+10:00)
To: Foundation <[email protected]>
Subject: Another Hero Coming Home
Good evening Family, Friends, and Foundation supporters,
Hope all is well with you and yours. I just wanted to update you on an MIA case we have been passionate about since 2012. Some of you who worked at JPAC with me may remember this as the case that I suggested to General Tom (when I cornered him in the hallway toilet) that we both get a shovel and go dig up an Unknown from the Punchbowl Cemetery only two miles away because my investigation identified him by name to the exclusion of 73,000 other MIA's. The general politely thanked me for my enthusiasm and ignored my suggestion. The JPAC Lab Director insisted I was wrong and that the Unknown couldn't be who I said it was because I used "voodoo science" in my investigation and the other voodoo science I suggested (DNA) to identify the remains was, well, just plain "voodoo".
Later I upped the JPAC challenge with an offer to quit if the unknown wasn't who I said it would be (TSGT Harry Carlsen) with the proviso that the Lab Director quit if the unknown was TSGT Harry "Bud" Carlsen, as I predicted.
Naturally, no one at JPAC accepted my challenge and I quit in frustration five months later anyway. A temporary win for JPAC and what turned out to be a temporary loss for TSGT Carlsen's family.
The next year the Chicago Tribune had this as a front page story in 2013:
70 years after World War II battle, Marines' families still hope for identification
A congressman got involved and requested a copy of my original investigative report and demanded a response by JPAC. If I recall correctly, JPAC insisted to the congressman that I was wrong because the dental comparisons didn't match. Bovine excrement said I and nicer words with the same conclusion were said by my own dental expert who reviewed the charts.
There the case sat until, under media and congressional pressure, JPAC was disbanded under a firestorm of criticism and their replacement agency (DPAA) finally exhumed the unknown (X-82) in 2017.
Long story short: I just received notice this evening from TSGT Harry Carlsen's family that the Marine Corps informed them that Bud has been identified as (you guessed it) Unknown X-82 from the Punchbowl, as predicted in my JPAC report in 2012 and all the follow-up investigative work the Foundation did for the family in 2012, 2014, and 2016.
Welcome home, Bud Carlsen! And, score one for the good guys....
Rick Stone
P.S. Note my statement in the article that I was so sure (or so stupid) that I publicly bet my house that X-82 would be TSGT Carlsen. Luckily now I don't have to become homeless...ha!
From: Chief Rick Stone & Family Foundation <[email protected]>
Date: 17/8/18 10:40 am (GMT+10:00)
To: Foundation <[email protected]>
Subject: Another Hero Coming Home
Good evening Family, Friends, and Foundation supporters,
Hope all is well with you and yours. I just wanted to update you on an MIA case we have been passionate about since 2012. Some of you who worked at JPAC with me may remember this as the case that I suggested to General Tom (when I cornered him in the hallway toilet) that we both get a shovel and go dig up an Unknown from the Punchbowl Cemetery only two miles away because my investigation identified him by name to the exclusion of 73,000 other MIA's. The general politely thanked me for my enthusiasm and ignored my suggestion. The JPAC Lab Director insisted I was wrong and that the Unknown couldn't be who I said it was because I used "voodoo science" in my investigation and the other voodoo science I suggested (DNA) to identify the remains was, well, just plain "voodoo".
Later I upped the JPAC challenge with an offer to quit if the unknown wasn't who I said it would be (TSGT Harry Carlsen) with the proviso that the Lab Director quit if the unknown was TSGT Harry "Bud" Carlsen, as I predicted.
Naturally, no one at JPAC accepted my challenge and I quit in frustration five months later anyway. A temporary win for JPAC and what turned out to be a temporary loss for TSGT Carlsen's family.
The next year the Chicago Tribune had this as a front page story in 2013:
70 years after World War II battle, Marines' families still hope for identification
A congressman got involved and requested a copy of my original investigative report and demanded a response by JPAC. If I recall correctly, JPAC insisted to the congressman that I was wrong because the dental comparisons didn't match. Bovine excrement said I and nicer words with the same conclusion were said by my own dental expert who reviewed the charts.
There the case sat until, under media and congressional pressure, JPAC was disbanded under a firestorm of criticism and their replacement agency (DPAA) finally exhumed the unknown (X-82) in 2017.
Long story short: I just received notice this evening from TSGT Harry Carlsen's family that the Marine Corps informed them that Bud has been identified as (you guessed it) Unknown X-82 from the Punchbowl, as predicted in my JPAC report in 2012 and all the follow-up investigative work the Foundation did for the family in 2012, 2014, and 2016.
Welcome home, Bud Carlsen! And, score one for the good guys....
Rick Stone
P.S. Note my statement in the article that I was so sure (or so stupid) that I publicly bet my house that X-82 would be TSGT Carlsen. Luckily now I don't have to become homeless...ha!
