For the past seven years, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Kelly McKeague has led the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), the organization within the Pentagon tasked with providing the fullest possible accounting of missing American service members. The DPAA sends teams to dozens of countries in the hopes of finding, identifying and repatriating American remains to their families.
McKeague is responsible for policy, control and oversight of all aspects of the Department of Defense program to account for missing personnel from past conflicts.
DAV sat down with McKeague earlier this year. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you briefly describe the DPAA’s mission?
We as a military, as a nation, sent men and women off into harm’s way. When they did not come home, it’s that fulfillment of that warrior ethos to never leave a fallen comrade behind. We are the embodiment of that moral promise of searching for, finding, hopefully identifying remains for the purpose of repatriating them to their families.
To read the rest of the interview, click here.