UWO Associate Professor of Anthropology, Jordan Karsten. PC: Fox 11 Online
OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A UW-Oshkosh professor helped identify an American solider who disappeared in Normandy during WWII.
Anthropologist and UW Oshkosh associate professor, Jordan Karsten, was part of a team that worked with the German War Graves Commission and Israeli nonprofits to search for the burial of missing in action (MIA) soldier, 1st Lt. Nathan Baskind of Pennsylvania, who served in Company C, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
After the war, it was learned through German records that Baskind had been captured and died of his wounds at a hospital near Cherbourg, France.
He was buried in a military mass grave. While disinterring the grave in 1957, the German War Graves Commission, found one of Baskind’s identification tags and portions of American military clothing. Remains in the grave were re-interred at the Marigny German War Cemetery.
Recent genetic testing of the bones uncovered were that of Baskind.
Baskind’s family was notified and he was buried on June 23, 80 years from the day he died in battle.
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