WASHINGTON D.C. –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, tasked with the vital mission of accounting for more than 80,000 Americans still missing from past conflicts, relies on a blend of historical research and advanced analytical techniques.
A crucial element in this effort is the imagery support team, specifically the Geospatial
Analysis Section within DPAA's Europe-Mediterranean directorate, who’s expertise in
analyzing historical imagery helps bring answers to families and honor the sacrifices of
those who served.
DPAA's EM directorate tackles a geographically broad and historically rich area of
responsibility, covering losses from North and South America, Africa, Europe, and Russia.
This spans from the battlefields of World War II Europe to the jungles of North Africa, each
presenting unique challenges in the search for missing personnel.
The imagery support team follows a meticulous process, beginning with a historian's
request. U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Andrew Shavlik, noncommissioned officer in charge of the
Geospatial Analysis Section, explained that the team then searches through National
Archives and Records Administration overlays to determine if imagery coverage exists. If
imagery is available, the team travels to NARA to collect the film canisters.
"Once we receive our cans, we load each roll of film onto a light table and scroll through the
reel to the frame of interest, " Shavlik said. "We use a DSLR camera and tripod to take an
overhead shot. To give the best context of the area of interest, we try to collect both preand post-incident imagery. This allows us to see what the ground looked like before and
after the incident and identify any potential changes that occurred."
The digital images are then processed using Adobe Photoshop, where the negatives are
converted to positives, cropped, and adjusted for color. Afterward, the team uses
specialized software, ArcGIS Pro, a similar program to Google Earth but more robust in
geospatial functions, and they georeference the image.
“’Georeferencing’ is a process that ‘ties’ points on the image to points on the map so that
the image is correctly oriented and spatially accurate,” said Shavlik. “Essentially, the
analyst will move the imagery to the right place, rotate and scale the imagery as necessary,
and finally, add control points to ‘snap’ the historical imagery onto the map. This process
ensures that the analyst gets the most accurate understanding of the historical imagery
possible by allowing them to easily compare geospatial data, such as pre-incident imagery
with post-incident imagery, post-incident imagery with present day imagery, present day
imagery with LiDAR data, or historical imagery with historical military maps.
“It answers questions such as: Has the area of interest in the historic imagery been built
up? Has it been overgrown with forests? Is it now a farm field? These questions help guide
the investigation teams once they’re on the ground.”
With the imagery georeferenced, the team begins the analysis. Shavlik stated that they look
for "anomalies," variations on the imagery that do not typically occur.
"Many times, we cannot say with a high degree of certainty what these anomalies are, but
we have scrutinized the imagery enough to know that it isn’t normal and is worth having the
team check out," he explained.
Speaking on the importance of geospatial analysis, said Dr. Ian Spurgeon, DPAA historian
and disinterment manager, noted that “while our work at DPAA involves science and
history, the word at the heart of our effort to recover missing American service members is
‘where.’ Ultimately accounting for a missing American comes down to analyzing past and
present activities within geographical settings. That means our work is dependent upon
geospatial analysis of historical and modern imagery,”
Despite their expertise, the imagery support team faces numerous challenges when
working with historical imagery that include issues like blurring, hazing, extreme distortion,
missing image dates, incorrect overlay files, missing pre/post incident date images,
damaged canisters, and even torn film.
“There have been plenty of instances where the film or frame of interest isn’t perfect,” said
Shavlik. “Sometimes there is more than one frame that covers the same area, so if one
frame isn’t suitable for analysis, we can use a different one. In other instances, none of the
imagery is a great quality, but we collect it anyway and give it our best effort rather than give
up at the first sign of trouble.
“With Photoshop, we can do some pretty remarkable things in terms of imagery
manipulation, such as adjusting the contrast, to give us the best result. When the image
quality is less than ideal, we qualify our analysis so that the historian understands our level
of confidence in the anomalies that we annotate.”
The imagery support team's expertise extends beyond the Europe-Mediterranean region.
The team also supports DPAA's Indo-Pacific directorate by training their contractors on the
imagery collection process, maximizing the imagery support team’s efficiency and
effectiveness when researching cases at NARA.
“We were able to describe our workflow starting with the historian request and work our
way through each step,” said Shavlik. “We showed them the process for requesting imagery
cans. The contractors were also able to see our camera set up and how we utilize the light
table.”
The imagery support team's relationship with the Army Geospatial Center is also essential
to their success.
“AGC is a vital partner that provides technical capabilities we do not have organically and
has been crucial when accompanying our EM teams on past missions. They can collect
and analyze geospatial data in real time so that our teams can use the information as they
are conducting their investigations,” said Shavlik. “AGC also has the ability to collect and
analyze historical imagery. Because DPAA’s geospatial support team is so small, it is often
necessary to partner with other agencies to balance our workload.”
The imagery support team is constantly looking towards the future to improve their support
of DPAA’s mission. This includes exploring and integrating new technologies into their
workflow. One promising technology is LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging.
Shavlik explained the potential benefit of this sensor, stating, "LiDAR is a sensor that can
penetrate vegetation to get a solid understanding of the earth’s ground features. This is
particularly useful when an anomaly that is present on historical imagery is obstructed by
vegetation on modern imagery. LiDAR helps see past that growth and potentially see
features that are hidden. This technology is a fantastic tool for our analysts, and we hope to
utilize it more in the future.”
By helping analysts "see through" vegetation and other obstructions, LiDAR offers the
potential to uncover previously hidden clues and refine search efforts, directly enhancing
the imagery support team's ability to support future DPAA recovery missions.
From scouring dusty archives for decades-old aerial photos to exploring the potential of
cutting-edge technologies like LiDAR, the imagery support team is providing DPAA with the
vital "eyes in the sky" needed to locate and recover missing personnel. Their painstaking
work and unwavering dedication embody the Warrior Ethos, the promise to leave no one
behind.