Roughly 1,000 Black men were trained in Tuskegee, Alabama to serve as Army aviators in World War II. Nearly 100 were killed — and of those, 27 went missing. Most were never recovered, leaving a trail of unresolved grief that would haunt their families for decades.

Their stories are the subject of a new book called “Forgotten Souls: The Search for the Lost Tuskegee Airmen" by Cheryl Whitlow Thompson. An award-winning investigative journalist, Thompson is currently a reporter and editor at NPR. She's also a native of Chicago and earned two degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

On Memorial Day, we learn about the ongoing work to identify missing soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines from America’s past wars. That includes Illinoisans who’ve finally been accounted for, like Marine Sgt. Robert F. Van Heck of Chicago, killed at age 25 during the Battle of Tarawa in World War II. Plus, we’ll talk about the enduring symbolism and mythology of soldiers thought left behind in Vietnam.

Tens of thousands of Americans who gave their lives in wars around the world have not yet received a proper burial. A team helping locate those missing in action came to Illinois to talk about their work and how technology is changing their searches. Two of them joined us.

Tens of thousands of Americans who gave their lives in wars around the world have not yet received a proper burial. A team helping locate those missing in action came to Illinois to talk about their work and how technology is changing their searches. Two of them joined us.

Tens of thousands of Americans who gave their lives in wars around the world have not yet received a proper burial. This week, a team helping locate those missing in action is in Illinois to talk about their work and how technology is changing their searches. Two of them joined us to talk about the search for missing service members and the technology that's help them in their efforts.