Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen Humphreys. William Griswold. Steve Roskams.

This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In September 2019, American Veterans Archaeological Recovery (AVAR) served as the lead partner of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) in the search for aircrew losses associated with a World War II-era B-24H crash in southern England. Fieldwork consisted of a site survey and bulk excavation. Over a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jesse Stephen. Joshua Toney.

This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency's mission is to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel from past conflicts to their families and the nation. We search for missing personnel from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf Wars, and other recent...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Abigail C. Bleichner. Megan Lickliter-Mundon. Hannah Fleming.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Since 2015, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency's Partnerships and Innovations Directorate (DPAA/PI) has successfully completed over 150 missions around the world, aided by the expertise and capabilities of more than 80 partner organizations. Included in this growing number of partners are...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer F. McKinnon.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2018 East Carolina University and Task Force Dagger Foundation partnered with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency to survey for lost WWII aircraft from the Battle for Saipan (1944). Under the direction of ECU archaeologists, a team of veterans from Task Force Dagger Foundation located a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only John Monaghan. Caleb Kestle. James Meierhoff. David Reid. Richard Elliot.

This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Taking the form of an *Annales enquête, this poster outlines a systematic approach to the recovery of remains of service personnel who are classified as Missing in Action from World War II from within a specific geographic area. It discusses the research program, the kind of data sources, and the way a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Piotr T. Bojakowski. Evander E. Broekman.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the context of underwater forensic archaeology, addressing WWII U.S. Military losses require a complex research process, while the end goal is to recover and identify the remains of unaccounted for individuals, or to otherwise resolve their fate. This project showcases research and excavation...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Katharine Kolpan. Nicholas Passalacqua.

This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation will discuss search and recovery efforts concerning an isolated, World War II-era burial from the Federal Republic of Germany. This was a project partnership between the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and Western Carolina University (WCU), coordinated between DPAA, WCU, and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alison Elgart. Heather Walsh-Haney.

This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) recently formed a partnership with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). In June 2019, FGCU participated in its first mission, the investigation of a World War II aircraft crash in Germany. For FGCU, this was the culmination of several initial endeavors. It was...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Evan J Kovacs. Calvin Mires. Ben Roberts. David Ullman.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2022, DPAA partnered with Marine Imaging Technologies, to conduct a phase I archaeological survey off Guam’s coastline for three WWII aircraft. The reported locations for these sites were in areas of high seas, fast currents, and strong winds that had posed hazards and losses for previous...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jarrod Burks. Albert Pecora.

This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Like many recoveries, locating 1st Lt. Ewart Sconiers required research, persistence, and good old-fashioned luck. While imprisoned at the Stalag Luft III POW camp in German-occupied Poland, complications from an injury sent Sconiers to a hospital in a neighboring town—where he died. His burial occurred in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Caitlin G. Gilbertson.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Kwajalein Atoll contains one of the largest lagoons in the world, surrounded by tiny islands making up about 6 square miles, 2,400 miles from Hawaii. A number of Americans are missing in this lagoon, extending the Defense POW/MIA Acounting Agency’s mission to this isolated area. A small team of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Shanna L Daniel.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. A Navy PB4Y-2 Privateer was conducting an unarmed reconnaissance mission when the aircraft was brought down by foreign aircraft. Ten crew members manning the Privateer are still unaccounted for. In March 2020, a cooperative investigation between Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Naval History &...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ian Lilley. Kelsey Lowe. Nick Bainton. Richard Martin.

This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The University of Queensland (UQ) has partnered with DPAA to bring renewed focus to a search in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, that has been continuing intermittently since an aircraft went missing in 1943. The operation is challenging because we have only a general idea of where the plane went down...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alex DeGeorgey. Kevin Dalton. Carly Whelan.

This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Historic archaeological sites associated with World War II American military losses on foreign lands represent the physical remains of a shared cultural heritage. Such sites are irreplaceable phenomena of significance to the past of both nations and for the knowledge and understanding of our shared cultural...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Peter Campbell. Andrzej W. Święch.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. DPAA expeditions have been conducted in Poland since 2019, carried out the land research in West Pomerania and Lower Silesia. In cooperation with Cranfield University first underwater expedition was planned at 2022 in West Pomerania. The project focuses on three B-17s lost in 1944 during bombing...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Frederick H. Hanselmann. Austin Burkhard. Jason J. Nunn. Arthur C.R. Gleason. Jessica Keller. D. Blair Moore.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Near the end of WWII, a B-25G departed an airfield in Trinidad for a 50 mile, 4-hour long photographic mission to Tobago. After hearing an airplane overhead, eye witness accounts detailed a craft with potential engine problems that turned into a ball of smoke and flame that plummeted from an...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Martin U Mainberger.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In spring 1945, upon returning from a bombing mission targeting SS-facilities in Oranienburg / Germany, a U.S. Army heavy bomber B17 aircraft was observed to crash into a small lake north of Berlin. Two crewmembers remain unaccounted for. After the detection of the tail section of the plane in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marilyn London. Adam Fracchia.

This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The University of Maryland Department of Anthropology has partnered with DPAA since 2016 for the recovery of American MIA military personnel. UMD faculty developed a summer field school through the Education Abroad program, with support from the UMD Department of Anthropology and the University of Vienna’s...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gregg Jamison. William Belcher. Charles Konsitzke. Brett Hoffman. Ella Axelrod.

This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since 2014, the University of Wisconsin Missing In Action Recovery and Identification Project (UW MIA Recovery and Identification Project) has partnered with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) to help recover, identify, and repatriate the remains of missing armed services personnel. Our approach...