The Unknown Soldier

Michael Joseph Blassie, the oldest of five children of a St. Louis meat cutter, entered the Air Force Academy in 1966, receiving his officer's commission in June of 1970. He served as a member of the 8th Special Operations Squadron during a tour of Vietnam. On May 11, 1972, his aircraft was shot down near An Loc, about 60 miles north of Saigon.

 

Immediate recovery attempts were launched, but Blassie had crashed in enemy territory; it was virtually impossible to look for him or his crash site. Five months later, during a sweep of the area, a South Vietnamese Army patrol recovered a pelvis, an upper arm bone, and some ribs, as well as the remnants of a life raft, a flight suit, part of a USAF holster, and pieces of a parachute. The remains and materials were eventually turned over to the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii for analysis and identification. They were initially classified as belonging to Lt. Blassie. However, analysis at the time suggested that the remains were not a compelling match to Blassie's age and height. With the conflicting information between the forensic analysis and the physical evidence, the remains were designated as "Unknown" and assigned the number "X-26." Years later, in 1984, X-26’s remains were laid in the Tomb of the Unknown.

 

 A decade after the Vietnam War Unknown was laid to rest, a stranger called the home of George Blassie, Lt. Blassie’s younger brother.  The caller said there was a strong chance that the remains of the Vietnam Unknown might be George’s brother. The caller then forwarded a copy of a book written by Susan Sheehan in 1986 titled A Missing Plane.  In her book, Sheehan described the recovery by a reconnaissance team of six bones and remnants of paraphernalia that indicated the bones belonged to a fighter pilot, 60 miles north of Saigon.  The caller also sent George a list of all the Americans killed near the area on May 11, 1972.  The only fighter pilot on that list was Lieutenant Michael Blassie.

Media attention surrounding the possible identity of the Unknown Vietnam Soldier increased over the years. In August of 1997 a CBS News reporter was granted permission from the family to dig deeper into the mystery.  He traced the trail of the remains of X-26 back at which they had been initially designated "BTB Lieutenant Blassie".  The information convinced the family that, despite disagreement from some veterans groups, they had a commitment to chase once unknown answers. The family petitioned the Department of Defense to open the site and conduct previously unavailable DNA testing. In 1998 the Tomb of the Unknown was opened and the remains of X-26 were removed.

Forensic anthropologists took the aged and damaged samples of bone for mtDNA testing, comparing the Unknown Soldier's DNA against two samples submitted by First Lieutenant Blassie's mother: they found a match.

On July 11, 1998, 1st Lt. Michael Blassie was buried with full military honors in Jefferson National Cemetery, Missouri, near his hometown, in the same cemetery as his father.

 

Mitochondrial Eve 
Imagine the mitochondrial DNA of all women living today. It is obvious that each set will be as small or smaller than the previous set. Eventually, if we trace all the sequences back, there will be only one set that will contain only the mitochondrial DNA of one woman - Mitochondrial Eve.
In 1987, Mr. Alan Wilson and coworkers at the University of California at Berkeley used mtDNA polymorphisms to create a human family tree, showing ancestral relationships between modern populations. They calculated the amount of time it would take to collect the numerous patterns of different mutations in modern day populations. Their finding supported the Out-of-Africa theory: all modern-day humans descended from a common ancestral population in Northern Africa. All living humans could be traced back to one woman who lived in Africa approximately 150,000 years ago.