DNA helps ID WWII, Korean War GIs' remains

Elsie Loth has for nearly seven decades struggled with the questions surrounding the death of her brother, an Army Air Forces second lieutenant who went missing during World War II.

The answers came after Loth, 88, of North Babylon, provided DNA samples about two years ago that helped to identify the remains of Edward Lake, the older sibling she grew up with in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Lake was killed during a 1943 reconnaissance mission over Papua New Guinea. He was 25.

"I'm very happy and pleased with the closure of this," Loth said Sunday as she prepared to travel to Virginia, where a memorial will be held Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery to honor her brother and 11 other crew members.

Lake is one of two Brooklyn servicemen whose remains the Defense Department last week announced were identified and returned to their families. Lake was buried with full military honors in February at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, near the home of his daughter, Charmaine Lake Wade.

The second soldier, Army Pfc. John Lavelle, is to be interred Monday with honors at Calverton National Cemetery.

Lavelle, 24, a Park Slope native, went missing in 1950 during the Korean War. He died in a POW camp near Kunu-ri, North Korea, said Defense Department officials.

His family hosted an emotional wake and funeral for him Sunday at Marine Park Funeral Home in Brooklyn.

His sister Dolores Mapes, 83, of Old Bridge, N.J., said the recent identification of Lavelle's remains both overwhelmed and shocked her.

"I'm sad and glad," said another sister, Gloria Weber, 81, also of Old Bridge, after the funeral. "It's the nicest thing in the world to think that you can bury your brother after sixty and a half years."

Lavelle, whose remains were turned over by Chinese officials in 1954, had been buried as an "unknown" at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, according to Defense Department officials.

The remains were exhumed last March when scientists at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command believed they could use dental comparisons and circumstantial evidence to confirm his identity.

The process of identifying Lake's remains began when a Papua, New Guinea resident found his crash site in 2003 and gave POW/MIA officials an ID card belonging to one of Lake's fellow crew members, officials said. The site was evacuated in 2007, and ID tags, forensic identification tools, such as the DNA of Loth and her niece, Wade, and circumstantial evidence confirmed the identities of 12 airmen, including Lake.

When Loth became too emotional to speak Sunday about her brother, her daughter took over.

"She remembershim as very outgoing and caring," said Elsa Hientz, 65, of Clearwater, Fla., who is visiting her mother on Long Island and will attend the Arlington, Va., ceremony. "In his letters, reaching out to their mother and father, he talked a lot about fighting for his country and for his freedom. He said if he died, if that happened, it was for a cause well worth it."