Senator Amy Klobuchar is asking U-S Defense Secretary James Mattis to ensure better efforts to identify unknown fallen servicemembers and respond to their families. Officials presented a Purple Heart and Bronze Star on Thursday to the widow of Staff Sergeant Gerald Jacobsen, missing for 70-plus years until D-N-A testing identified his remains in an unmarked grave in Normandy. Klobuchar says, “It’s been nearly a decade since Catherine and Serena first reached out for help, and a U-S senator had to get involved. The Jacobsens deserve better than that. Jerry deserved better than that. All our fallen heroes, our current veterans and their families deserve a lot better than that.”
Klobuchar says the Pentagon estimates more than 83-thousand servicemembers are missing from past conflicts in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War and the Persian Gulf. She says last year only 164 servicemembers were identified, 36 fewer than mandated by law.