U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System and the Joint Personal Effects Depot give a shout-out for the Army's 250th Birthday at Dover, Delaware, June 2, 2025.
Upon graduating high school and joining the U.S. military, new recruits undergo a medical day at boot camp where DNA samples are collected and stored on specimen cards. These cards are sent to the Armed Forces Repository of Specimen Samples for the Identification of Remains (AFRSSIR), which has been collecting DNA specimens since 1992 and now stores millions of cards. The repository receives up to 250,000 new specimens annually, particularly...
