2006年VOA标准英语-Modern US Lab is Center of Search for Missing F

By Al Pessin
Honolulu
27 July 2006
 

Inside US military identification laboratory  
  
At a modern laboratory in the sun-washed serenity² of Hawaii, lost American servicemen from some of the most brutal³ and difficult wars of the past century are finally coming home. Their bones, helmets and personal items are laid out on examining tables, where scientists try to figure out who they are so their remains⁴ can be returned to their families for proper burial, decades after they died.

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Senior advisor⁵ Johnie Webb leads a tour of the laboratory dedicated⁶ to identifying remains that come in from all over the world. "This is the primary laboratory floor, where most of the analysis takes place by the scientific staff. All the cases you see out on the laboratory floor, those are active cases that are undergoing identification. The scientists are doing the analysis, actually creating a profile that they can then compare against the records of the individuals that were lost," he said.

It is often a slow and difficult process. Dr. Robert Mann, the center's deputy scientific director, discusses one case displayed on a laboratory table. "Just looking at that we would know that is a ground loss because of the absence of breakage of those bones. You would not see that, you would have a lot of broken bones if it is an air crash. You would expect no broken bones like that, maybe a gunshot wound, if it is a ground loss," he said.

Doctors sometimes have to re-assemble skeletons from small bits of bone, and use dental records and DNA⁷ analysis to try to figure out whose remains they have. When they're lucky, the analysts⁸ might also have some personal items or the serial⁹ number from a part on a gun or an airplane to help narrow the search.

There are 1,800 Americans missing from the Vietnam war, and more than eight thousand from the Korean War. Tens of thousands more are missing from World War II and other conflicts.

Most of the remains that come to this lab are from North Korea or Southeast Asia, but some come from World War II battle sites in Europe and the Pacific. This month, the center identified the remains of nine servicemen who died in the crash of a U.S. bomber¹⁰ in New Guinea in 1942. And one team of scientists is working on two sets of remains from a military ship that sank during the American Civil War, nearly 150 years ago.

Last year, the U.S. military suspended the search for remains in North Korea because of security concerns. But the search continues in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and sometimes elsewhere. The commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Admiral William Fallon, visited one site in Laos last week. "It is not an easy task. The site that we went to visit was on the side of a mountain. In the intervening years it had been completely covered with the jungle. It took a hundred people three days to hack¹¹ out the undergrowth to be able to expose the bare earth. But once they did the teams went to work and they sifted¹² through and they showed me several buckets worth of things that they think are going to be very useful in helping¹³ to identify remains," he said.

It is a difficult and expensive effort in a very remote location, made worse, the admiral says, by torrential rains and a large population of flying insects.

 
Johnie Webb
  
But the senior advisor to the general in charge of the search for the missing, Johnie Webb, who has been involved in the search for the missing off and on since 1975, says it is well worth the effort. "A family sent a young man off to war and he never came home. But nobody every told them what happened to him. He just disappeared. They have lived with the uncertainty¹⁴ for so many years, with questions of, 'Was he a prisoner?' 'Did he suffer?' And so I think we owe it to the family," he said.

Even with the search for the missing proceeding¹⁵ fairly well in Southeast Asia, the local governments put some restrictions¹⁶ on the movements and working hours of the teams that make the process slower than it needs to be. The governments also charge high rates for access and labor¹, but U.S. officials say the profit the governments make at least provides an incentive¹⁷ for them to allow the work to continue.

During his visit to the region, Admiral Fallon received assurances from officials in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia that they will allow the searches to continue. "We are doing well. And I have high confidence that if it is at all possible to find these remains to be able to repatriate¹⁸ the missing, they are going to do it," he said.

Admiral Fallon is a veteran of the Vietnam War, and he lost many friends in some of the same areas where the search for the missing continues.

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 serenity   

n.宁静，沉着，晴朗

参考例句：

• Her face,though sad,still evoked a feeling of serenity.她的脸色虽然悲伤，但仍使人感觉安详。
• She escaped to the comparative serenity of the kitchen.她逃到相对安静的厨房里。

3 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

6 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

7 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

8 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

9 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

10 bomber   

n.轰炸机，投弹手，投掷炸弹者

参考例句：

• He flew a bomber during the war.他在战时驾驶轰炸机。
• Detectives hunting the London bombers will be keen to interview him.追查伦敦爆炸案凶犯的侦探们急于对他进行讯问。

11 hack   

n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳

参考例句：

• He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
• Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。

12 sifted   

v.筛( sift的过去式和过去分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审

参考例句：

• She sifted through her papers to find the lost letter. 她仔细在文件中寻找那封丢失的信。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She sifted thistles through her thistle-sifter. 她用蓟筛筛蓟。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

14 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

15 proceeding   

n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报

参考例句：

• This train is now proceeding from Paris to London.这次列车从巴黎开往伦敦。
• The work is proceeding briskly.工作很有生气地进展着。

16 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

17 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

18 repatriate   

v.遣返；返回；n.被遣返回国者

参考例句：

• The government safely repatriates victims.政府安全遣返了受害者。
• In this part,you need to formulate in detail repatriate the plan.在这一部分，你需要制定详细的归国计划。