Local dentist may help with IDs

Stacy J. Willis

Thursday, Sept. 13, 2001 | 10:18 a.m.

Las Vegas dentist and Nevada Sen. Ray Rawson is packed and ready to go to New York to help identify bodies through forensic dentistry.

Rawson was contacted by Gov. Kenny Guinn and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials and put on "standby status" in case the number of dead bodies from the Tuesday attack on the World Trade Center exceeds the capabilities of the region's forensic dental specialists.

Rawson, R-Las Vegas, became tearful when speaking to the Clark County Ministerial Association Wednesday, and later said he was "feeling very emotional about" facing the number of dead in New York.

Rawson has university degrees in dentistry and anthropology and has specialized in forensic dentistry for more than a decade. In 1989 he was called to Sioux City, Iowa, to identify corpses at the crash site of United Airlines flight 232. One hundred twelve people died in that crash.

"It is not pleasant duty. Whenever you have to come to grips with large numbers of deaths, it's very hard," he said.

"In Sioux City, I was overwhelmed with the death. In a plane crash, there is a lot of fragmentation, and we were literally looking for portions of teeth."

Rawson is a part of a disaster team made up of dentists and computer research specialists who match teeth to dental records nationwide, he said.

If he is called, he said, the U.S. government will arrange for his transportation to New York.