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.\u00a0 But their work last year IMO nonetheless deserves kudos.<\/p>\n
During 2016, DPAA formally accounted for 141 US military personnel.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Of those personnel now accounted for, 77 were from World War II.\u00a0 The vast majority (68) of these personnel were lost in the Pacific Theater of Operations.\u00a0 Two actions provided the majority (59) of those recovered:\u00a0 Pearl Harbor (35) and Tarawa (24).\u00a0 The losses at Pearl Harbor accounted for by DPAA during 2016 were all members of the crew of the USS Oklahoma<\/u>.<\/p>\n
An additional 60 US military members who were lost during the Korean War were accounted for by DPAA during 2016.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The remaining 14 were lost in South Korea.<\/p>\n
Four US personnel lost in Southeast Asia were accounted for by DPAA during 2016.\u00a0 Three were lost in Vietnam; one was lost in Laos.<\/p>\n
The \u201cbottom line\u201d:\u00a0 during 2016, DPAA accounted for one US military member lost in previous conflicts every approximately 2.5 calendar days.\u00a0 The earliest US casualty accounted for by DPAA during 2016 was lost at Pearl Harbor – which occurred over 75 years ago.\u00a0 The latest US casualty accounted for by DPAA last year occurred during March, 1968 \u2013 over 48 years ago.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not often that a Federal bureaucracy deserves our thanks \u2013 and our gratitude.\u00a0 But IMO, DPAA certainly does.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Everyone deserves a decent burial.\u00a0 That\u2019s particularly true regarding those who gave all in the service of this nation.<\/p>\n
Happy New Year, all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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.\u00a0 But their work last year IMO nonetheless deserves kudos. During 2016, DPAA formally accounted for 141 US military personnel.\u00a0 These personnel had been lost during past conflicts, but their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[210],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-no-longer-missing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ozh1-i70","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}