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.

Lt. Col. Clarence F. Blanton, U.S. Air Force, was lost on March 11, 1968, in Houaphan Province, Laos, when his unit was overrun by enemy forces. He was accounted for on July 26, 2012.
Cpl. Francis J. Reimer, U.S. Army, M Company, 3^rd Battalion, 31^st Infantry Regiment, 31^st Regimental Combat Team, was lost on Dec. 12, 1950, near the Chosin Reservoir. He was accounted for on July 19, 2012.
Cpl. Clarence H. Huff, Jr., U.S. Marine Corps, I Company, 3^rd Battalion, 5^th Marine Regiment, 1^st Marine Division was lost on Dec. 2, 1950, near the Chosin Reservoir. He was accounted for on July 13, 2012.

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

News Releases

September 11, 2012 - Airman Missing in Action from Vietnam War Identified (Blanton)
September 7, 2012 - Navy Pilot Missing in Action from Vietnam War Identified (Broms)
September 5, 2012 - U.S. Soldier Missing in Action from Korean War Identified (Ryan)

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

Briefly... 2012

Burmese Officials Visit JPAC

On Aug. 7-10, eight representatives from the Burmese Office of the Chief of Military Security Affairs visited JPAC. One representative from DPMO participated in the visit. The delegation received an orientation of JPACs methodologies, techniques, and procedures in how they conduct remains recovery missions. JPAC will provide general operating procedures to the Burmese via the Defense Attaché Office in Yangon, which will enable the Burmese to assess how recovery operations are conducted. The exchange of goodwill extended between the countries’ delegations was tremendous, and we hope to be able to resume recovery operations in Burma in the coming years.

U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIA (USRJC)

On Aug. 15, DASD Winfield had lunch with General (Ret.) Robert H. "Doc" Foglesong, the Chairman of the U.S. side of the USRJC. They are working together to shape the way ahead for the USRJC and the Joint Commission Support Directorate (JCSD). They plan to establish a strategy that will determine JCSD’s overall direction and measures of effectiveness.

FY13 Family Updates

DPMO is currently planning six Family Update events in Fiscal Year 2013. A tentative schedule with locations will be released soon. Additionally, the annual Korean/Cold War meeting will take place in April in the Washington D.C. area, and the annual briefings for Vietnam War families will take place during the National League of Families 44th Annual Meeting, June 13-15 in Crystal City.

A complete listing of the 2012 brieflies can be found on the Brieflys Page

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.