‘113 acres of why we are free:’ Dayton National Cemetery remembers the fallen, those still missing

The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs hosts commemoration ceremonies at more than 130 national cemeteries throughout the U.S. on Memorial Day. The Dayton National Cemetery, one of five National Veterans Administration cemeteries in Ohio, is the final resting spot for nearly 60,000 service people.

“A few months ago, our team lost one of our own,” said Ledbetter, remembering U.S. Army veteran Jay Rothweiler, who worked at Dayton National Cemetery.

“Jay and I had many conversations over the years. He told me many times that this cemetery and his work here saved his life. Jay was passionate about serving our veterans and our families,” Ledbetter said.

The Memorial Day address featured Master Sgt. Igor Pogrebnyak, a Russian language interpreter and the non-commissioned officer in charge of the analytical cell at Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. He currently researches and analyzes data to account for missing U.S. personnel from WWII, Vietnam and Korean wars and the Cold War.

“There are nearly 81,000 unaccounted for U.S. personnel from past conflicts dating back to WWII with roughly 38,000 currently assessed as recoverable,” Pogrebnyak said.

While those numbers may seem overwhelming, he said, those figures signify the importance of their agency’s tasks to find and repatriate the remains of those personnel.

“With each discovery, we inch closer to fulfilling our promise to these brave men and women and their families,” Pogrebnyak said.

The agency accounted for 158 service members during the past year, he said.

“We persist in our commitment to achieving the most comprehensive accounting possible for our missing service members and extend our consolation to their family members,” Pogrebnyak said.

Two servicemen from Ohio whose remains had been found, identified and brought back included U.S. Army Air Force’s Second Lt. James Marrah, 22, of London, and First Lt. Dan Corson, 27, of Middletown, who were both killed during WWII, Pogrebnyak said.

Monday’s Memorial Day ceremony also included a wreath laying ceremony, during which Albert Brown, who had been a POW during WWII, laid a wreath. The family of James P. White, Jr., who was killed while serving in the U.S. Army in 2006 during Operation Enduring Freedom, also laid a wreath in his memory.