Identified! NY - Harlem, BlkMale 1609UMNY, 20-30, USMC Tattoo, Jun'97 Leroy Bernard Matthews

apearn said:

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It's late and I'm tired but I was looking at the Namus pic blown up 500% on my big screen. Here is a screenshot.

Does anyone else see what I see?

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The link with those shirts is from recruit training battalion....boot camp. So, those colors don't have siginificance in the fleet, not something you would see a Marine wearing after they were out of boot camp more than a couple weeks.

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It looks like maybe letters covered up by the tattoo. I think I made out an 'e' and a 'g'.

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Wanting2Help said:

apearn are you posting on Veteran Doe? I've been off of WS for awhile, just trying to catch up...

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apearn said:

I have quite a bit of interest on my blog about this guy.

Can anyone tell me where the ME had the fingerprints checked? Exactly who or what database was checked? Has anyone heard this info from the ME or NYPD?

FYI - I found a guy with the exact same tattoo. He's a marine and got it at a shop in 29 palms. It was flash in a shop there. That is not super great but I've looked at like 10k EGA images on Google and his pic was the first one that ever matched!

It totally blows apart by ideas about the tat being a story but, hey, I'll take being wrong over progress any day!! LOL!!

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Roselvr said:

After spending time reading your blog, you've learned a lot about his tat. I have no doubt that he earned it! I hope you don't mind me copying the photo here for all to see. It's a huge clue to possibly identifying him! His prints really need to be checked with the military database. I think with what you've recently learned that you have enough info to give to his ME to where he has enough information (the 29 Palms, CA link) that he can contact the military to check the pints. They can pretty easily figure out when he served after what you've found. Would love to see him go home!

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dotr said:

Thanks Roselvr,
Posted this on matching, unidentified tattoos thread.
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...attoos-of-the-missing&p=12272017#post12272017

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apearn said:

Oh, this is going to make be batty. I saved this pic as "william vancouver washington" and I always save the comparison pics as the MP's name, so, either I goofed the name or that is the MP's name. I can't find him now though even just searching without the name like I normally would be doing.

I saved it on 10/30/2015 and I went on a week long trip starting that weekend so either I found something that made him unlikely, or, I parked it for later and then forgot to look him up.

Does anyone know who this missing person is? I should have gotten it off sites like this one, DN, NAMPN, NAMUS, CP.....or (I hope not) a facebook page for missing persons.

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apearn said:

Oh, this is going to make be batty. I saved this pic as "william vancouver washington" and I always save the comparison pics as the MP's name, so, either I goofed the name or that is the MP's name. I can't find him now though even just searching without the name like I normally would be doing.

I saved it on 10/30/2015 and I went on a week long trip starting that weekend so either I found something that made him unlikely, or, I parked it for later and then forgot to look him up.

Does anyone know who this missing person is? I should have gotten it off sites like this one, DN, NAMPN, NAMUS, CP.....or (I hope not) a facebook page for missing persons.

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apearn said:

As the mother of a US Marine and (in 2 weeks) also the mother of a US Marine Recruit - my Mother's Day was just made a little extra special thanks to Harlem World Magazine! My hat goes off to them!

Score 1 for this mom. NYC media has been a very tough nut to crack and these guys/gals were very gracious.

http://harlemworldmag.com/help-find-military-veteran-harlem-john-doe-warning/

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apearn said:

I was looking to buy a USMC t-shirt for a family member and I really wanted the red one, but, when I put in the person's USMC info it kept coming up blue. So it was bugging me and I realized, after a bit, that 3rd Battalion is blue.

Which, if I want to jump to conclusions....and I often do, may explain why this tat is completely blue ink. I had wondered about that blue ink. I mean, why have such a large tat and remove all color (if it's non prison related)....especially when it's not black. Anyway, I looked up some other 3rd battalion tats and occasionally they are done in all blue.

So the t-shirt I was trying to buy was asking about unit logos (I had no clue) and so upon looking at a zillion of those, the sword in this gents tat is indicitive of (not entirely unique to, but VERY unique to) 3rd Battalion. It has the bulb on top and the ribs. A lot of the unit logos have different style swords in different positions.

Exciting stuff......:thinking:

The little explosion by the bottom of the sword is similar to EOD unit logos but not exact. The rope leaving the anchor like that is unusual and it exploding on the end is like the EOD logo except their rope comes out of a bomb.

The style of bird is more similar to unit logos dealing with flight operations than the normal everyday EGA bird. It's always been my opinion the recon info was an add on afterwards, and it is also blue. Nothing in the original work is similar to force recon unit logos, that I can find.

Only a few unit logos use the Death Before Dishonor saying, but I didn't see any glaring similarities between those images and this tat.

Overall, I think he is telling a little story here.

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apearn said:

Nah. I think I was off the mark. The guy who sent me the matching tattoo said he thinks it was just artistic license on the tattoo artists part.

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