America’s Promise to Never Forget: Inside the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

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More than 81,000 American service members remain missing from wars dating back to World War II. For their families, the waiting never ends. But deep within the Pentagon, a specialized agency works around the clock to bring them home.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency represents one of the most ambitious humanitarian missions in modern military history. Armed with cutting-edge forensic science, diplomatic networks spanning 46 countries, and an annual budget exceeding $140 million, DPAA operates on a simple promise: no American service member will be forgotten.

The Sacred Mission

The agency’s official mission sounds bureaucratic: “to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and the nation.” But behind those careful words lies a commitment that touches the heart of military service.

“Fullest possible accounting” carries specific legal weight. It means exhausting every reasonable investigation and recovery effort until scientists conclude that remains are “non-recoverable.” Even then, the case stays open. New evidence can trigger fresh searches decades later.

This isn’t just policy—it’s personal. The agency operates under five core values that shape every decision: compassion for families, integrity in research, teamwork across borders, respect for the missing, and innovation in methods.

The mission stems from federal law. The Missing Service Personnel Act requires a single Defense Department organization to handle all aspects of finding missing personnel. Congress has repeatedly strengthened this mandate, most notably requiring the agency to identify at least 200 missing persons annually by 2015.

From Fragmented Past to Unified Future

DPAA didn’t always exist in its current form. The modern accounting mission began during Vietnam, when mounting casualties created an urgent need to track the missing.

In 1964, the Defense Intelligence Agency established a Special POW/MIA Office. Two years later, the Joint Personnel Recovery Center began sending “Bright Light” teams to investigate crash sites and recover remains. After 591 American POWs returned in 1973, the focus shifted entirely to accounting for those still missing.

For decades, the mission suffered from bureaucratic fragmentation. Three separate organizations handled different pieces of the puzzle:

Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in Hawaii managed field operations and forensic analysis. It combined two earlier units: Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, which investigated cases in Southeast Asia, and the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, which identified remains from multiple conflicts.

Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) in Washington handled policy and coordination between agencies.

Life Sciences Equipment Laboratory (LSEL) in Ohio analyzed aircraft wreckage and life support equipment to understand crash circumstances.

Government audits in the early 2010s exposed serious problems. The Government Accountability Office found “fragmented organizational structure,” weak leadership, inconsistent policies, and unnecessary overlap. The community was falling short of congressional goals, including the mandate to identify 200 missing persons yearly.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel ordered a complete reorganization in 2014. On January 15, 2015, DPAA officially formed by merging all three predecessor organizations. The new agency became fully operational in January 2016.

This wasn’t cosmetic restructuring. It created unified command over personnel, resources, research, and operations—fixing the coordination failures that had plagued the mission for decades.

The Numbers Behind the Mission

The scale of DPAA’s challenge is staggering. More than 81,000 Americans remain unaccounted for from past conflicts. The majority—over 72,000—disappeared during World War II. But the list spans from the 1940s to present-day operations.

DPAA estimates that 38,000 to 39,000 cases are “possibly recoverable.” More than 41,000 individuals are presumed lost at sea, where recovery faces enormous technical challenges and costs.

Despite these daunting numbers, the agency has dramatically improved its success rate. Between 2002 and 2012, before DPAA’s formation, the accounting community averaged just 72 identifications per year.

The unified agency changed everything:

• Fiscal Year 2019: 217 identifications (a then-record)
• Fiscal Year 2023: 158 identifications
• Fiscal Year 2024: 172 identifications, including the 700th from Korea and 100th from Cabanatuan POW camp

DPAA now aims to identify at least 350 missing personnel annually by 2025 through expanded disinterment operations and enhanced global partnerships.

How DPAA Works

The agency operates as a “hub-and-spoke” system that blends Pentagon-level policy with forward-deployed operations and centralized scientific analysis.

Command Structure

DPAA reports to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Its headquarters sits in the Pentagon, providing strategic direction and oversight. The leadership team includes a civilian Director, Principal Deputy Director, Deputy Director for Operations, and Senior Enlisted Advisor.

Laboratory Operations

DPAA Laboratory, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii serves as the agency’s primary facility. This is the world’s largest and most diverse skeletal identification laboratory, accredited by the American National Standards Association Board. It employs more forensic anthropologists than any other organization globally and handles cases primarily from the Indo-Pacific region.

The Hawaii laboratory offers public tours, providing rare insight into the agency’s scientific work.

DPAA Laboratory, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska focuses on cases from the Europe-Mediterranean theater, complementing Hawaii’s operations.

Forward Detachments

Detachment One, Bangkok, Thailand has operated since 1992 as the critical forward hub for Southeast and South Asia. It provides command, control, and logistics for operations in Cambodia, India, and Myanmar.

Detachment Two, Hanoi, Vietnam serves as the U.S. Government’s resident expert on POW/MIA issues in Vietnam. This office works directly with Vietnamese counterparts to conduct joint field activities for the more than 1,200 Americans still missing from that war.

Lines of Effort

DPAA organizes its work into four strategic areas:

Accounting encompasses all research, investigation, disinterment, recovery, and identification activities—the core operational mission.

Communications and Engagement keeps families, veterans, Congress, and the public informed of ongoing work.

Synchronization integrates the agency’s multiple offices and functions to eliminate past inefficiencies.

Mission Support provides logistics, expeditionary support, human capital, and financial management.

The Path to Identification

Every successful identification begins not with excavation, but with exhaustive historical research. DPAA historians and analysts build comprehensive case files by examining military records, after-action reports, declassified intelligence, maps, photographs, and previous investigation files from U.S. and foreign archives.

Research and Investigation Teams

Research and Investigation Teams (RITs) are 10 to 14-member advance units composed primarily of analysts and linguists. They travel to host nations to search local archives and conduct high-level interviews with foreign government and military officials. Their goal is developing new leads, with “Last Known Alive” cases receiving highest priority. A single RIT mission can generate dozens of new leads.

Investigative Teams (ITs) follow promising RIT leads. These smaller, 4 to 9-member teams include a team leader, analysts, a linguist, a medic, and often a forensic anthropologist. They travel to specific crash or burial sites to interview local witnesses, conduct on-site reconnaissance, and survey terrain for logistical and safety concerns. IT findings determine whether evidence justifies full-scale excavation.

Field Recovery Operations

When ITs confirm promising sites, Recovery Teams (RTs) deploy for excavation. These physically and mentally demanding missions often occur in remote, hostile environments—from Southeast Asian jungles and European mountains to Pacific Ocean depths. Missions typically last 30 to 65 days, with teams working 8 to 10 hours daily, six days weekly.

Recovery teams include 10 to 14 highly skilled personnel from all military branches:

Scientific Recovery Expert (SRE): A DPAA forensic anthropologist or archaeologist leads excavation using rigorous scientific methods.

Military Team Leader and Team Sergeant: An officer and senior NCO handle command, control, and daily mission management.

Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Technician: Essential for safely clearing unexploded bombs and munitions from former battlefields.

Linguist: Facilitates communication with host-nation officials and local laborers hired to assist excavation.

Medic or Corpsman: Provides medical care in austere environments.

Additional specialists include Life Support Investigators (equipment analysis), Forensic Photographers (site documentation), and Mortuary Affairs Specialists (dignified remains handling).

Archaeological Precision

Excavation follows strict archaeological protocols. The SRE establishes a grid over the site, and teams carefully excavate layer by layer. All soil is painstakingly sifted through screens to search for human remains and material evidence like personal effects, uniform fragments, or identification tags.

DPAA also conducts disinterments of unidentified remains (“Unknowns”) from American military cemeteries worldwide. Major ongoing projects include the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii and Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.

Before disinterring an Unknown, DPAA historians must build strong correlational cases linking remains to specific missing service members. This often requires DNA reference samples from families to increase identification likelihood.

Laboratory Science

All potential human remains and material evidence travel with honor and dignity to DPAA’s laboratories in Hawaii or Nebraska. Here, multidisciplinary science teams begin the critical final phase.

Multiple Lines of Evidence

Identification never relies on single evidence. DPAA uses convergence from multiple, independent sources to make scientifically and legally defensible identifications. Laboratory scientists analyzing remains are different from field experts who recovered them—a practice called “working in the blind” that ensures objectivity.

Only when these different evidence lines point to the same individual does DPAA’s Senior Medical Examiner—a board-certified forensic pathologist—officially make identification. This rigorous, cross-validating system ensures families receive the most accurate answers possible.

Global Partnerships

DPAA’s mission requires extensive collaboration. The agency’s strategic plan identifies partnerships as essential “force multipliers” for expanding capacity and capability. The Partnerships and Innovation Directorate cultivates relationships with diverse entities worldwide.

Foreign Government Relations

Diplomatic relationships enable global operations. Gaining and maintaining access to former battlefields requires constant negotiation with 46 host nations. DPAA, coordinating with the State Department, conducts regular technical talks to schedule missions, coordinate logistics, and ensure team safety.

These humanitarian missions often improve international relations, building trust even with former adversaries.

Academic Collaboration

Universities provide critical research, expertise, and innovation through DPAA’s “Hub and Spoke” program:

The National WWII Museum in New Orleans hosts DPAA Research Partner Fellows who analyze captured German wartime records. The museum’s vast platform educates millions about the accounting mission through specialized programs.

East Carolina University specializes in underwater archaeology, deploying teams to survey and excavate submerged aircraft crash sites using advanced technologies like acoustic imagery and 3D modeling through their maritime studies program.

Temple University hosts DPAA fellows conducting deep-dive historical research into World War II and Vietnam War cases, laying groundwork for future field operations. Their partnership program demonstrates academic commitment to the mission.

University of Wisconsin pioneers environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques, analyzing soil and sediment samples to detect human DNA presence, helping pinpoint potential recovery sites.

Private Sector Innovation

DPAA maintains relationships with over 100 private partners, from nonprofits to specialized technology companies:

History Flight, Inc. is a nonprofit conducting some of the largest, most successful recovery operations in partnership with DPAA, particularly at the Battle of Tarawa site.

The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine provides crucial operational support for worldwide recovery missions through specialized programs.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) collaborates on ocean exploration, sharing data and vessel time. This partnership led to discovering USS Abner Read wreckage, a Navy destroyer lost in WWII, through joint exploration efforts.

RPM Nautical Foundation and Marine Imaging Technologies bring cutting-edge underwater technology, including deep-water dredging systems and 3D modeling for exceptionally challenging recovery sites.

Family Engagement

DPAA’s ultimate purpose is providing answers to families of the missing. Communication and engagement form a core agency function, ensuring families remain partners throughout the process.

The Identification Process

When laboratory identification succeeds, DPAA prepares extensive briefing files containing all available case information. These files transfer to appropriate Service Casualty Offices—dedicated offices within Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps.

A casualty officer from that service personally contacts primary next of kin to arrange in-person briefings. During these meetings, families learn the entire case history, from historical loss circumstances to scientific identification methods. Following briefings, families make burial decisions, and service members finally come home with full military honors.

Ongoing Communication

Long before identification, DPAA maintains family contact through Family Member Update (FMU) programs. These events, held multiple times yearly in cities across America, serve as vital bridges between agency and families.

At FMUs, families can:

• Receive formal presentations from DPAA leadership and scientists about global mission and technological advances
• Attend one-on-one meetings with specific historians, analysts, and casualty officers assigned to their cases for personalized updates
• Connect with other families sharing similar experiences, building support communities
• Provide Family Reference Samples (FRS) for DNA comparison—one of the most critical family contributions to identification efforts

How Citizens Can Help

Multiple avenues exist for public engagement in this mission:

Family Members of Missing Service Personnel can:

• Provide DNA reference samples through Family Reference Sample programs
• Share family records, photographs, letters, or documents that might contain clues
• Maintain updated contact information with DPAA
• Participate in Family Member Update events

General Public, Researchers, and Students can:

• Support nonprofit organizations like History Flight that partner with DPAA
• Volunteer for genealogical research projects
• Share historical documents, photographs, or artifacts that might contain relevant information
• Advocate for continued congressional support of the mission

Technology and Innovation

DPAA continuously adopts new technologies to enhance identification capabilities and expand recovery possibilities.

DNA Advances

Traditional mitochondrial DNA analysis has expanded to include autosomal DNA, Y-chromosome analysis, and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) testing. These advances allow identification even when family reference samples come from distant relatives.

The agency has also pioneered environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling, which can detect human DNA presence in soil and sediment, helping locate potential burial sites before excavation.

Remote Sensing

Satellite imagery, ground-penetrating radar, and LiDAR technology help identify potential sites and understand terrain before teams deploy. These tools reduce both costs and risks associated with field operations.

Underwater Capabilities

Partnerships with organizations like NOAA and private underwater technology companies have dramatically expanded DPAA’s ability to investigate losses at sea. Advanced sonar, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), and deep-water recovery systems now make previously impossible recoveries feasible.

Challenges and Future Outlook

Despite significant progress, DPAA faces ongoing challenges in fulfilling its mission.

Geographic Obstacles

Many missing personnel disappeared in areas now difficult or impossible to access due to political instability, environmental hazards, or geographic remoteness. Climate change and development also threaten potential recovery sites.

Scientific Limitations

Some remains may be too degraded for identification, particularly those lost at sea or in harsh environmental conditions. Advancing technology continues pushing these boundaries, but limitations remain.

Resource Constraints

With over 81,000 missing personnel, complete accounting would require centuries at current identification rates. The agency must constantly balance resource allocation between different conflicts, prioritizing cases with highest recovery probability.

Diplomatic Complexities

Access to former battlefields requires ongoing diplomatic negotiations. Political changes in host nations can affect cooperation, and some areas remain off-limits due to continuing conflicts or political tensions.

The Promise Continues

Every identification represents more than scientific achievement—it fulfills a sacred promise to families who have waited decades for answers. When Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant John Smith (a composite representing hundreds of similar cases) disappeared over Germany in 1944, his family received a telegram stating he was missing in action. His mother waited until her death in 1987 for news that never came. His nieces and nephews continued the vigil.

In 2023, DPAA identified remains recovered from a German forest where his bomber crashed 79 years earlier. Advanced DNA analysis matched bone fragments to a reference sample provided by his great-niece. The identification came too late for his mother, but not for the promise America made to never forget.

This story repeats hundreds of times yearly as DPAA continues its work. Each identification closes a chapter in family grief while opening possibilities for closure, understanding, and peace.

The agency’s motto, “Until They All Come Home,” reflects an commitment that transcends individual administrations, budget cycles, or changing priorities. It represents America’s recognition that military service demands the nation’s pledge to never abandon those who serve, regardless of when or where they fall.

As forensic science advances and international partnerships deepen, DPAA’s capacity continues growing. The agency that once struggled to identify 72 missing personnel annually now regularly exceeds 150 identifications yearly, with goals of reaching 350 annual identifications by 2025.

For families still waiting, these numbers represent hope. For the nation, they represent the ongoing fulfillment of an sacred obligation to those who served and sacrificed. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency ensures that America’s promise to never forget remains more than words—it’s a living commitment backed by science, diplomacy, and unwavering determination to bring every service member home.

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