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 IWO JIMA, Japan (AP) - Maj. Sean Stinchon stands at the base of Hill 362A and scans a map drawn up by Navy Seabees in 1948 that is deeply creased and covered in reddish brown dirt. The map shows a labyrinth of caves and tunnels that runs through the brush-covered hill like the cross-section of an ant colony.
Save for the buzzing of mosquitoes, all is quiet. Stinchon can see all the way to the pristine black-sand beach and the Pacific. It's a breathtaking scene. But Stinchon, of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command at Hickam Air Force Base on Hawaii, is focused on finding a Marine named Sgt. William H. Genaust, killed 62 years ago.
Over the past two years, Stinchon has traveled through Europe and Asia looking for the remains of America's fallen troops. More than 78,000 are still missing from World War II alone. An additional 8,100 are MIA from the Korean conflict, and 1,750 from Vietnam.
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