Earlier this week, the United States honored its military war dead on Memorial Day. However, around 81,000 service members involved in conflicts since the start of World War II are still listed as missing in action.
The overwhelming majority, nearly 72,000 individuals, served in World War II, according to the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). Since 1973, DPAA has been tasked with finding, identifying, and recovering missing American service members. Of the missing service members, approximately three-quarters were lost in the Indo-Pacific region. About 41,000 of the missing are believed to have been lost at sea.
Though eight decades have passed since the end of World War II, recovery efforts are still proving successful. In fiscal year 2024, the agency identified 172 previously unaccounted-for service members: 139 from WWII, 29 from the Korean War, and four from the Vietnam War.
News reports of the recovery and return of the remains of 2nd Lt. Thomas V. Kelly Jr., a bombardier on a B-24 shot down off the coast of Papua New Guinea on March 11, 1944, have heightened interest in the ongoing search for the missing. On Memorial Day 2025, more than 81 years after his death, Kelly was finally laid to rest alongside his parents and sister in St. Michael’s cemetery in Livermore, California, with several relatives in attendance.
The remains of three other servicemen in the bomber's 11-member crew have also been identified, and two are awaiting burial in the coming months.
The search continues:
- DPAA works in countries around the world, collaborating with about 30 private organizations (including Project Recover, which helped locate Lt. Kelly’s remains) to find and recover missing service members.
- As of May 2025, there are more than 7,400 missing service members from the Korean War, 1,571 from the Vietnam War, and six from the Gulf War.
- Among the missing WWII service members are 27 servicewomen, according to a 2021 report.
- In 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed a proclamation establishing National POW/MIA Recognition Day as the third Friday in September. According to DPAA, the ceremonies held on National POW/MIA Recognition Day have the “common purpose of honoring those who were held captive and returned, as well as those who remain missing.”
