DPAA and 2016 – By the Numbers
No formerly missing US military personnel were announced as having been accounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) during the final week of 2016. But their work last year IMO nonetheless deserves kudos.
During 2016, DPAA formally accounted for 141 US military personnel. These personnel had been lost during past conflicts, but their remains were either previously not recovered or not definitively identified during or after the conflict.
Of those personnel now accounted for, 77 were from World War II. The vast majority (68) of these personnel were lost in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Two actions provided the majority (59) of those recovered: Pearl Harbor (35) and Tarawa (24). The losses at Pearl Harbor accounted for by DPAA during 2016 were all members of the crew of the USS Oklahoma.
An additional 60 US military members who were lost during the Korean War were accounted for by DPAA during 2016. Of those, 46 were lost in North Korea, with most apparently being lost during operations IVO the Chosun Reservoir during late November/early December 1950. The remaining 14 were lost in South Korea.
Four US personnel lost in Southeast Asia were accounted for by DPAA during 2016. Three were lost in Vietnam; one was lost in Laos.
The “bottom line”: during 2016, DPAA accounted for one US military member lost in previous conflicts every approximately 2.5 calendar days. The earliest US casualty accounted for by DPAA during 2016 was lost at Pearl Harbor – which occurred over 75 years ago. The latest US casualty accounted for by DPAA last year occurred during March, 1968 – over 48 years ago.
It’s not often that a Federal bureaucracy deserves our thanks – and our gratitude. But IMO, DPAA certainly does. Because of DPAA’s work, 141 American families will begin 2017 knowing that a long-lost family member lost during a past war has been properly laid to rest.
Everyone deserves a decent burial. That’s particularly true regarding those who gave all in the service of this nation.
Happy New Year, all.
Category: No Longer Missing
BZ! Thank you for your attention to detail Hondo.
Welcome home all that returned, may 2017 bring more home.
I struggled with this one, Hondo, but, in the end, I went with my initial reaction, that while any accounting of remains is a good thing, no thanks belongs to DPAA or its predecessor. Here’s a detailed accounting of the sordid and sick history of JPAC/DPAA.
https://chiefrickstone.com/joint-pacific-miapow-accounting-command/jpac-in-the-news/
DPAA is not the “successor organization” to JPAC. DPAA is a direct report to the Pentagon (USD/P), as was its predecessor DPMO. JPAC was not.
JPAC was a direct reporting unit under PACOM. As such, it did not report to the former DPMO – which was the DoD staff entity in charge of management of POW/MIA issues prior to 31 January 2015.
DPAA was formed on 31 January 2015 by combining the assets DPMO, JPAC, and parts of the USAF Life Sciences Laboratory (presumably those parts associated with forensics). IMO it’s probably more correct to call DPMO DPAA’s predecessor and the former JPAC and USAFLSL elements that were merged assets transferred-in.
My assessment is that the inane set of command relationships between JPAC and DPAA (JPAC reported to one COCOM while performing work for DoD as a whole; I have no clue who USAFLSL reported to, but would guess HQ USAF or the Air Staff) was at least partially responsible for JPAC’s issues (some have termed them scandals). DPMO didn’t seem to share those issues – but also didn’t have any real authority to tell JPAC what to do and make it stick, in spite of the fact that JPAC was performing work under DPMO’s purview.
Problems are generally inherent in such a setup (an organization working on behalf of a faraway entity in a given mission area, but reporting to a very different local another entity that doesn’t know the business). The problems that arose over time at JPAC appear to have been fairly significant.
Interesting how the revelations have produced some results at long last?
Accountability…its the key to success….