Canada is turning to modern forensics to identify soldiers who died on the battlefields of Europe and Korea.
The Department of National Defence is looking for forensic archeologists, anthropologists and genealogists to help identify the increasing number of unearthed remains from missing veterans.
"Agricultural practices, combined with new road, business and housing construction on the former battlefields in Europe and Asia, has brought about an increase in the discovery of unidentified human remains, including the remains of Canadian servicemen," states a tender put out by the department.
Of the 112,000 Canadians who died during the First World War, Second World War and the Korean War, almost 28,000 have no known grave. About 20,000 of the missing fought in the First World War.
Some veterans died on the ocean or in the air, but others were buried or left on old battlefields. Canada doesn't actively look for their remains, but is one of the Commonwealth countries that will try to identify them if they are unearthed and give the soldier the final dignity of being buried under his name.
In the past, when remains were found, they could rarely be identified beyond the unit the soldier fought with. The veteran was simply buried in the nearest war cemetery as an unknown soldier.
Now, that's changing.
"The rapid improvement of genetic and other analytical techniques, together with an equally rapid drop in cost for this type of testing, has allowed Canada to apply greater precision in identifying the remains of fallen servicemen and women," says the defence department tender.
Laurel Clegg, a casualty identification researcher with National Defence, normally deals with between one and three unidentified soldier cases a year.
But recently there has been a surge of construction in northern France, which has started encroaching on farm fields, she said. As the fields are dug up, more human remains are being found.
Historical researchers do what they can to narrow down an identity using clues such as army badges. They also try to figure out which unit was in the area and whether any dead soldiers from that unit are still missing.
But even "DNA can only take you so far," Clegg said.
When researchers can go no further, forensic anthropologists and other specialists are called for. They can analyze the remains and determine how tall the soldier was, how he died, whether he suffered from diseases and if there were any previous injuries.
"More and more, we're able to actually identify these people in a much more specific way," said Clegg, who added the cost of such expertise has dropped.
"Before it was a little out of range ... It's extreme how affordable it's become and as it's becoming more and more affordable, it's quality is going up and up."
Bradley Hall, secretary general of the Canadian Agency of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, said more countries are doing everything they can to identify their war dead as technology becomes more accessible.
"As a former soldier, and whose son is a soldier, I'd like to think my country will do whatever it can given the circumstances to properly honour any soldier who has died in service of his country," Hall said.
"That would include identifying remains and burying them wherever that might be."
Being able to put a name to an anonymous veteran means so much to the family of the deceased, said Bob Butt with the Royal Canadian Legion.
Many families have reconciled the fact that their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers who were lost at sea or in the air will never be found, Butt said.
But there's now hope for families whose loved ones died on the battlefield.
"Each one of them that can be identified gives the family closure because they know he has been taken care of properly and he has been given a proper burial rather than somebody saying, 'I'm sorry but he's gone and we don't know where."
