Partnerships to Search for America's Missing in Kwajalein Atoll

Summary

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 individuals on the island of Kwajalein have come together to form the Kwajalein MIA Project. These individuals are volunteers that have dedicated vast amounts of time to locate wreckage associated with those still missing. In 2021, the DPAA partnered directly with the KMP to carry out a mission which was ultimately successful. However, a number of drawbacks, including the isolation of this region and limited personnel, prevented the team from reaching their full potential. These setbacks proved to be learning opportunities and offer the chance to better develop the partnership between the DPAA and KMP in the future.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow