Welcome To DPMO

"Keeping the Promise", "Fulfill their Trust" and "No one left behind" are several of many mottos that refer to the efforts of the Department of Defense to recover those who became missing while serving our nation.

More than 83,000 Americans are missing from World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the 1991 Gulf War. Hundreds of Defense Department men and women -- both military and civilian -- work in organizations around the world as part of DoD's personnel recovery and personnel accounting communities. They are all dedicated to the single mission of finding and bringing our missing personnel home. The mission requires expertise in archival research, intelligence collection and analysis, field investigations and recoveries, and scientific analysis.

Recently Accounted-For

Starting in 2012, recently accounted for service members will be listed in the chronological order that they are accounted for, which means that the families have been notified. In previous years, they were listed by the date of identification. The highlighted names are linked to a more detailed news release on that serviceman's identification.

Master Sgt. Robert A. Stein, U.S. Army, Headquarters Battery, 57^th Field Artillery Battalion, was lost on Dec. 4, 1950, near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. He was accounted for on Feb. 6, 2013.
Pfc. James R. Hare, U.S. Army, Battery B, 15^th Field Artillery Battalion, 2^nd Infantry Division, was lost on Feb. 13, 1951, near the Korean town of Hoengsong. He was accounted for on Jan. 19, 2013.
Lt. Richard L. Laws, U.S. Navy, was lost on Apr. 3, 1966, when the F-8E Crusader was struck by enemy ground fire. He was accounted for on Jan. 17, 2013.

A complete listing of recently account-for servicemembers can be found on the Recently Accounted-For page.

News Releases

February 12, 2013 - U.S. Soldier Missing in Action from Korean War Identified (Byars) (Photo)
February 9, 2013 - U.S. Soldier Missing in Action from Korean War Identified (Hare) (Photo)
February 7, 2013 - U.S. Soldier Missing in Action from Korean War Identified (Scott)

A complete listing of News Releases can be found on the News Releases page.

Briefly... 2013

40th Anniversary of the signing of the Paris Peace Accords

January 27 marked the 40th anniversary of the signing of the "Agreement Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam," also known as the Paris Peace Accords, the document officially ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Article 8 of the Agreement called for the release of all prisoners and committed the "parties to help each other get information about those military personnel and foreign civilians of the parties still missing in action." Throughout "Operation Homecoming," 588 POWs were released from Hanoi, 27 from Loc Ninh in southern Vietnam, and 3 from Beijing, China. As of today, due to the hard work of the entire Accounting Community, 992 service members and civilians who were unaccounted-for from that conflict have been brought home. Our work continues as we strive to account for the remaining 1,654 Americans unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War.

Coordination with China

Last month, DPMO joined JPAC senior leaders for bilateral discussions with Chinese officials in Beijing, to review proposed JPAC investigation and recovery missions in the country. Cases proposed for investigation include World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War losses. JPAC also proposed a Korean War loss in Liaoning Province for recovery. The JPAC proposals were well received, and the talks were conducted in a warm and cordial atmosphere.

Personnel Recovery Policy

The Personnel Recovery Policy Directorate at DPMO is pursuing a robust engagement strategy to ensure best practices across the U.S. government. We are increasing our focus on countries where the Department of State, led by an Ambassador or Chief of Mission, has the lead for U.S. government activities. In these countries, DoD does not have personnel recovery capabilities that can respond when someone becomes isolated, so we are heavily dependent on our interagency partners and the host nation to conduct recoveries of isolated Americans. We have been working closely with the Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service, and assisted them in developing training standards for personnel outside of the U.S.

A complete listing of the 2013 brieflies can be found on the Archived Brieflys Pages

POW/MIA Bracelet Inquiries

Members of the public often contact DPMO requesting information on servicemen for whom they wore a Vietnam War POW/MIA bracelet. They usually wish to contact the person or his family so they can send them the bracelet that they wore. Since we cannot provide the public with private addresses we have on file, we recommend forwarding a postage-affixed letter to the respective serviceman's casualty office with a cover letter explaining the request.

If the service casualty office has a current address, they will forward the letter to the serviceman or his family. At that point, the serviceman or family member may choose to contact the concerned citizen and provide them with an address to send the bracelet. There is no guarantee that this process will work. Many of the former POWs are no longer in contact with their service casualty office and this also applies to the families.