Joan Baker, an anthropologist, and Marine Corp. Julian Temblador remove small stones from the top of a grave next to a church in Pokojisce, Slovenia, on July 17, 2017. A team representing the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency conducted a mission in Slovenia in July to search for the remains of Sgt. Alfonso Duran, an airman missing since World War II. (Jennifer Svan/Stars and Stripes)
POKOJISCE, Slovenia — The earth by the headstone next to the church in this tiny mountain village was full of rocks.
Two days of digging under a hot sun had yielded buckets of gravel, stones the size of men’s fists and many piles of dirt – but no bones. After 73 years, Sgt. Alfonso O. Duran was still missing.
The team from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency had arrived in the nearby city of Ljubljana in mid-July on a mission to find Duran’s remains and bring him home.
