The DPAA’s mission is to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel from past conflicts to their families and the nation. Within this mission, the DPAA searches for missing personnel from World War II (WWII), the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf Wars, and other recent conflicts. Their research and operational missions include coordination with hundreds of countries and municipalities around the world. The American Legion Family can provide valuable help to the DPAA in its search by raising awareness of the data available on its website, https://www.dpaa.mil (https://www.dpaa.mil/). Of special importance is the location and identification of over 70,000 missing from WWII. As the veterans’ families from that conflict become further removed in generations from the veteran, it becomes more difficult to find viable DNA.
DPAA’s motto states, “Fulfilling Our Nation’s Promise”. You may wonder how we can help fulfill DPAA’s mission. We can share this information within the American Legion family and our communities. DPAA’s database of missing personnel contains information stored by name, conflict, state, branch of service, and accounting status, which can be searched by any of these parameters. Results can be downloaded to your computer in either PDF or CSV format.
Servicemember profiles exist for many of the personnel, telling unique stories about their time in the service. For those missing whose remains have been recovered, the stories tell of the recovery effort and how the personnel were memorialized. The National Security Committee will share some of these profiles throughout the year, and we encourage unit and department chairs to share profiles of those they know with their divisional chairs.
Contact information is available on DPAA’s website if a family has an inquiry or information about a missing loved one. Casualty Services offices are maintained within each military department, and they work directly with families during the identification and repatriation of MIA remains.
Let us remember and never for get their sacrifices.
