DPAA In The News

Dec. 7, 2020

79 years after Pearl Harbor sinking, project to identify USS Oklahoma's dead nearing its end (via the Tulsa World)

The name “Pearl Harbor” didn’t mean anything to most Americans when it crackled over their radios for the first time in December 1941.Before the Japanese attack of Dec. 7, few had ever heard of it.But for Oklahomans at least, one name in the news reports that followed rang a definite bell.Word that the battleship USS Oklahoma was among the vessels

Oct. 23, 2020

Joint Statement Regarding Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark T. Esper's Meeting With Indonesian Minister of Defense Prabowo Subianto

Today, Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark T. Esper met with Indonesian Minister of Defense Prabowo Subianto at the Pentagon to discuss regional security, bilateral defense priorities, and defense acquisitions. Secretary Esper communicated the importance of upholding human rights, the rule of law, and professionalization as the two countries expand their

Aug. 17, 2020

Sunny Lee, who ensured Utah remembered the Korean War, dies at 67 (via The Salt Lake Tribune)

Sunny Lee, who from her home in Springdale worked with the South Korean government to celebrate American soldiers who fought in what’s been called The Forgotten War, died Friday at Dixie Regional Medical Center. She was 67.Her husband, John Lee, said his wife had a meeting in her home Aug. 4 with a representative of the South Korean government to

June 25, 2020

U.S., South Korea Repatriate Remains of 147 Korean Soldiers

Navy Adm. Philip S. Davidson spoke during a June 23 repatriation ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, in which the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency turned over the remains of 147 South Korean service members who died in the Korean War in the largest repatriation of South Korean soldiers.The effort to return the remains is a part of

March 13, 2020

Remains of US service members from World War II repatriated from Myanmar (Via FoxNews)

The remains of U.S. military service members who died in action in Myanmar during World War II were returned to the United States on Thursday.“Over 75 years ago, brave Americans gave their lives on a riverbank in Sagaing, fighting for peace, justice and freedom, far from home,” the U.S. Embassy's Deputy Chief of Mission George Sibley said during a

Jan. 29, 2020

The search for those Missing in Action (Via KTNV Las Vegas)

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Right now, there are about 82,000 total people still missing from every major conflict since World War II. Of those, 81 are from Nevada. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is a government agency that is actively searching for all of those people.The DPAA is working to get DNA swabs of family members related to those

Jan. 28, 2020

A U.S. raid on 'Hitler's Gas Station' killed 310 airmen. Offutt is working to ID some of the fallen (Via the Omaha World-Herald)

Staff Sgt. Vincent Politte held no illusions about the chances of surviving his World War II bomber crew’s 23rd mission: a 2,400-mile suicide run, deep behind German lines, attacking a cluster of oil refineries in Ploesti, Romania, known as “Hitler’s Gas Station.”The war planners called it Operation Tidal Wave. Today, it is considered by many

Jan. 22, 2020

Maine native lends a hand to MIA search effort in Vietnam (Via the Portland Press-Herald)

The 80-minute ride each day to the site in Lang Son Province, Vietnam, through mostly unspoiled forestland and fields, reminded Air Force Master Sgt. Aliah Reyes a little of her hometown back in Maine.The Eliot native recently returned from a 45-day mission to the Southeast Asian country, where she was part of a team conducting a search for a

Jan. 20, 2020

The road home from Pearl Harbor (Via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

A third push to identify the bodies of sailors killed at Pearl Harbor could mean two fallen shipmates from Georgia might finally make it home.William E. Blanchard, a boilermaker on the USS Oklahoma, and Walter B. Manning, an electrician’s mate, were among the more than 2,400 killed in the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese surprise attack that sparked the U.S.

Nov. 25, 2019

Soldier Honored at DFW Airport on Way to Final Resting Place (Via NBCDFW)

A water cannon salute flew over a plane at DFW Airport on Saturday as the remains of a soldier reported missing in action in North Korea finally heads home.The remains of Army Corporal Earl W. Duncan arrived at the airport on Saturday.According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Duncan was last seen in 1950, when his team was attacked by