Agency offers Henderson briefing for families of MIA soldiers
Family members of missing in action service members who are seeking answers about their loved ones are invited to meet with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency on Saturday in Henderson.
Staff from the agency, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner system and Service Casualty Offices will be at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas at 1610 Lake Las Vegas Pkwy. from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to meet with families whose loved ones are unaccounted for from military conflicts ranging from the Vietnam War and the Cold War to World War II.
Family members will be briefed on what the DPAA and its partners are doing to bring their loved ones home, and they will have a chance to honor their missing service members in a Remembrance Ceremony.
Casualty officers will be on hand to address specific questions about cases.
“Keeping in touch with family members and letting them know what we are doing to find their loved ones is a critical element of our mission at DPAA,” Todd Livick, the agency’s outreach and communications director, said in a news release. “Family member updates are one of the most effective ways to communicate with large numbers of families at one time. It also gives us all that personal one-on-one time to connect that you just can’t get on the phone or internet.”
Throughout the year, agency specialists meet with hundreds of family members across the country. These updates are designed to address the individual needs of the family members.
“It is appropriately a sacred obligation and moral imperative to research, search for, recover and identify those missing in an unknown piece of earth and return them home to American soil,” Kelly McKeague, DPAA director, said in a news release. “In Fiscal Year 2019, DPAA accounted for 217 Americans, a milestone for the agency. That means 217 families now have answers after decades of uncertainty.”
Family members interested in attending can register at www.dpaa.mil/Families/Family-Events or call 703-699-1420, ext. 1193.
Those who have not registered can still meet with DNA specialists, who will be on site collecting DNA swabs, to provide DNA samples and learn more about the mission to help with future identifications for their missing family members.
Contact Briana Erickson at berickson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5244. Follow @ByBrianaE on Twitter.