Dr. Sarah Lockyer is a Biological Anthropologist and is the Casualty Identification Coordinator for the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence. She works with people around the world to identify Canadian service members who have fallen in battle during WWI, WWII and the Korean Conflict, and provide them with a dignified burial.
In this episode we talk about:
- Sarah’s post-academia journey into her current job position
- her typical day as the Casualty Identification Coordinator
- what the identification process looks like for an unknown individual
- why identification of an unknown individual can be difficult
- differences between the American and Canadian approaches in attending to fallen service members
- how unidentified humans remains are often discovered in Europe
- interacting with the next of kin, and the impact of the identification and burial process for them
- how many Canadian service members are still missing (WWI = 20,000; WWII = 7,000 – 8,000; Korea = 16)
- what can be involved in a burial through the Canadian Casualty Identification Program
You can connect with Sarah on:
Instagram: drslockyer
Twitter: @S_Lockyer
Find out more about the Canadian Casualty Identification Program here.
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Yvonne Kjorlien 