Yes Oriah, that's why I can't stop thinking about this case. It just seems like the system completely failed him. How did they expect to identify him if no one knew that this even happened. I guess they were waiting for someone to report a missing person from the area. If the UID happens to be the guy from Florida, then they would never have put the 2 together.
I am guessing that the UID had no family in the area, and they may have thought he was homeless which may be why they just didn't put any effort into his case.
One more note about the tattoo...my husband said that he met people while he was in the Navy that would get elaborate Navy tattoos (including special forces), and then they would get discharged or flunk out of bootcamp. He said that they would aspire to be a Navy Seal or something similar, so they would get a tattoo that indicated "Navy Seals" and then they never made it in. So, the moral of the story is that the UID's tattoo may not be a true picture of how his time in the Marine's was spent. Just wanted to throw that out there to keep all options open.