IWO JIMA, Japan - Maj. Sean Stinchon stands at the base of Hill 362A and scans a map drawn up by Navy Seabees in 1948 that is deeply creased and covered in reddish brown dirt. The map shows a labyrinth of caves and tunnels that runs through the brush-covered hill like the cross-section of an ant colony.
    Save for the buzzing of mosquitoes, all is quiet. Stinchon can see all the way to the pristine beach and the Pacific. It's a breathtaking scene.
    But Stinchon, of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) at Hickam Air Force Base on Hawaii, is focused on finding a man named Sgt. William Genaust, killed 62 years ago.
    Over the past two years, he has traveled through Europe and Asia looking for the remains of America's fallen troops. More than 78,000 are still missing from World War II alone. Another 8,100 are MIA from the Korean conflict, and 1,750 from Vietnam.
    Following the motto ''Until They Are Home,'' JPAC, which was created in 2003, identifies about six MIAs each month - some 1,300 so far. The command, which also runs permanent branches in Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, has at any given time about 1,000 active cases.
    In 1945, Hill 362A was a kill zone.
    The 21,200 Japanese defenders, deeply dug in with weapons and supplies, faced a desperate situation: 100,000 Americans who were storming Japanese soil for the first time. They watched a huge flotilla of U.S. Navy ships surround their island. Then came the bombings and heavy artillery fire.
    Then the Marines.
    Within days, an American flag was flying atop the highest point on the tiny, pork-chop shaped island - Mount Suribachi, a sulfur-belching volcano on Iwo Jima's southern tip. But it took 31 days before the U.S., on March 26, 1945, declared the island secure. Some 6,821 Americans were killed; only 1,033 Japanese survived. For the U.S., it was the fiercest battle of the war - none had generated a higher percentage of casualties.
    It was a turning point.
    On Feb. 23, 1945, AP photographer Joe Rosenthal hiked up to the top of Suribachi and shot the flag-raising - the second one that day. His photo, which won him the Pulitzer Prize, helped rally the weary nation behind the final push to defeat Japan, and continues to serve as the single most important icon of the valor of the U.S. Marine Corps.
    Genaust, a Marine combat photographer, was also there. After escorting the unarmed Rosenthal up the volcano, he stood next to Rosenthal and filmed the moment with a movie camera.
    But he didn't live to see the effect of his own footage.
    Nine days later, Genaust was on Hill 362A helping his unit secure a cave. They needed a flashlight to see inside, and Genaust volunteered to use his. But as he entered the cave, he was riddled with machine-gun fire and died on the spot. The entrance to the cave was sealed - possibly by a bulldozer.
    Genaust's body, with those of 280 U.S. ground troops who fought on Iwo Jima, was never found.
    Stinchon was on Hill 362A to change that.
    In a 10-day expedition, Stinchon and his seven-member team - the first U.S.-led search on Iwo Jima in nearly 60 years - were looking for what wasn't on his map: caves and tunnels that were closed and sealed, then missed when U.S. searchers combed the island for American dead.
    ''We need to find places that haven't already been searched,'' he said.
    Though it boasts the world's largest forensic anthropology laboratory, JPAC's staff of about 425 people is stretched to the limit and often relies on outside tips - from family members, friends or amateur historians.
    ''It's such an incredible mission,'' said Lt. Col. Mark Brown, the JPAC spokesman. ''There's a lot of families who have been waiting a long time.''
   
   
How you can help

    * WHOM THEY ARE LOOKING FOR: About 88,000 U.S. troops still missing from World War II and other conflicts.
    * HOW TO HELP: Investigators rely heavily on tips and information from relatives and private citizens. They particularly value eyewitnesses. Relatives can provide DNA samples taken from swabs of the inside of the cheek.
    * WHOM TO CONTACT: The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, can be contacted through their Web site at www.jpac.pacom.mil/Contact.htm. The Defense POW/MIA Personnel Office, which oversees policy issues and maintains a family support team, has a Web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo/.
    Source: The Associated Press