Anne recently read a Facebook post from one of her many, many cousins. In this case the post was from Janet, or rather Dr. Janet. She is not a medical doctor, but rather a PhD. In fact, if she was examining you, you would already be dead. She works as a forensic archeologist for a Defense Department organization called Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). Her job is to recover the remains of U.S. military personnel lost in combat. Based in Hawaii, her job takes her around the world. During the last government shutdown, she found herself trapped on Wake Island and had to “pilot” her own C-130 away.

Janet’s Facebook post announced that DPAA personnel were featured in episodes of the reality TV/documentary show Expedition Unknown. This long running TV show is hosted by Josh Gates, who in addition to narration, provides much of the series’ comic relief. He reminds me of the Netflix movie We Have a Ghost, where a reality TV star, played by Jennifer Coolidge complains, “I have to get out of basic cable, it is so unprofresh.” In these episodes he is first searching for American POWs lost during WW II, in the Pacific. He inconclusively dives to find lost Allied soldiers on the Hofuku Maru, a notorious Japanese Hell-ship. These so-called Hell-ships were floating prison camps used to transport POWs back to Japan.

In the next episode, Josh is allowed to join a DPAA recovery mission. This deep-water dive in Subic Bay, Philippines is investigating another WW II Hell-ship that was sunk during the war by the U.S. carrier Hornet. This episode introduces the salvage vessel U.S. Salvor and fellow forensic archeologist Megan Mumford. By this time though Anne was falling asleep and the neighbors, the Ojibwe and everybody else were launching fireworks. I’ll get back to this later.