Do we put enough emphasis (or too much) on returning our fallen service-members?

We as the Military/Vet community follow it, but I believe that the population as a majority do not.

All those who serve or have served are entitled to be returned and I feel every effort should be in place for that to happen. Never leave a fallen comrade.

We should never forget our fallen, IMHO.

As a country, I don't feel we put nearly enough emphasis on returning the fallen. Personally, I don't think you could ever put too much emphasis on returning a service member to the soil which they died for.

**** RELATED STORY ****

REMAINS OF PEARL HARBOR VICTIMS DUG UP FOR IDENTIFICATION ...

The military on Monday exhumed more caskets containing the unidentified remains of USS Oklahoma crew members killed in the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor.

The coffins were dug up at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, where they have rested for decades. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in April that it would disinter up to 388 Oklahoma servicemen to account for sailors and Marines still classified as missing.

The cemetery and the military allowed the media to observe a ceremony afterward when flags were draped over the coffins.

The Oklahoma identification project involves disinterring 61 caskets at 45 grave sites at the Honolulu cemetery commonly known as Punchbowl. More than a dozen caskets have already been exhumed.

The Oklahoma capsized after being hit by torpedoes during the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack. Altogether, 429 sailors and Marines on board were killed. Only 35 were identified in the years immediately after.

Hundreds were buried as unknowns at cemeteries in Hawaii. In 1950, they were reburied as unknowns at the Punchbowl.

The military is acting now, more than 70 years after the men died, because advances in forensic science and technology as well as genealogical help from family members have made it possible to identify more remains.

The identification work will be conducted at Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency laboratories in Hawaii and Nebraska. They will also be done at the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

The agency expects to identify about 80 percent of Oklahoma crew members now considered missing. It expects the work will take about five years.

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/pentagon/2015/07/27/uss-oklahoma-remains-dug-up-for-identification/30750103/

Bring em home.

There's no greater debt that we owe than that to our veterans, both living and dead...no matter where they are.

I think that America as a society needs to put more emphasis on these individuals. Those that have given the ultimate price should be mourned by all Americans. It is unfortunate though that you'll see a bigger headline for some celebrity that has died than the case of someone who has died overseas and finally returning home after X amount of years.

Leave no-one behind. Most have this as their ethos... (modified for gender correctness of course...)

No. The big picture is the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency (DPAA) which is a 500 person agency has been rocked by inefficiency, internal squabbling, and resistance to working with NGOs. Their budget is $100,000,000 a year and it appears to fund their existence. If we repatriate 100 MIA per year, that is $1,000,000 per person, but the number is estimated to be 80,000 MIAs around the world. DPAA might get the credit for bringing back marines, however, I would not be surprised if an American Pilot who funded himself was instrumental in pointing DPAA in the right direction, the very man that was dismissed by the agency and were obstinate in not collaborating with him. As much it pleases me that 36 Marines returned home, we still have 79,964 still missing. The answer is hell no!