The United States and Italy signed a pact to bolster efforts to recover the remains of American soldiers who went missing in action during World War II, officials announced Tuesday.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) — the U.S. agency tasked with identifying fallen service members — and Italy’s culture ministry signed a deal to improve operations to locate and recover the remains of fallen military members who were never accounted for in Italy. The memorandum also establishes the protection of archaeological sites involved in the search efforts, Italian officials said in a statement.
The Italian peninsula was the site of intense battles from 1943 to 1945, following the Allied invasion of Sicily and the campaign to liberate Italy from Nazi forces.
It’s difficult to pinpoint how many missing U.S. soldiers were killed in Italy during World War II, but roughly 72,000 American servicemembers remain unaccounted for from the war around the world, according to DPAA. The remains of nearly 1,000 Americans who died in World War II have been identified since recovery efforts were renewed in the 1970s.
Forensic experts at DPAA spend years using DNA, dental records, sinus records and chest X-rays to identify the remains of service members killed in combat.
Earlier this year, a 23-year-old U.S. soldier who went missing in action during an aquatic mission in Italy during World War II was accounted for.
The new agreement to recover remains of fallen soldiers in Italy was signed Tuesday by Luigi La Rocca, the head of Italy’s Department for Heritage Protection, and Kelly McKeague, the director of DPAA.
“The right to research and remember those dead during the war is now combined with the protection of the archaeological heritage for which the ministry of culture is responsible,” Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said Tuesday.
Giuli said the agreement was a further step in “our decade-long cooperation with the U.S. agency for prisoners of war and missing in action, as a tribute to those who sacrificed their lives to contribute to our freedom.”
Stephen Smith is a managing editor for CBSNews.com based in New York. A Washington, D.C. native, Steve was previously an editorial producer for the Washington Post, and has also worked in Los Angeles, Boston and Tokyo.
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