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Eakin filed a lawsuit against the federal government in 2009.

After years of motions and filings, the Pentagon finally exhumed that group grave and matched Kelder's remains with his family's DNA. Pentagon officials had no other comment.

But the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) — the U.S. agency tasked with finding, identifying and returning such remains — says it rarely digs up the graves of unknown soldiers.

The NPR/ProPublica investigation last year found that's because the agency is slow and risk averse, and has used outdated science.

JPAC officials maintain that the reason the process is so slow is because they take great care not just to make a positive identification — which is easy now with DNA testing — but to identify and return as full a set of remains as possible, so families can have closure.

Still, Eakin says it took a lawsuit and years of back and forth with JPAC to finally get Kelder identified.

But the case is not over yet. Kelder's remains were scattered with the remains of many others. Their families want answers, too.

Since the NPR/ProPublica investigation, the Pentagon has launched a major overhaul of JPAC. Also, the longtime director of JPAC's central identification lab will eventually be replaced by a Navy captain with DNA expertise.

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