MIA SEARCH & RECOVERY TEAMS DEPLOY TO AUSTRALIA AND PAPUA NEW GUINEA
HICKAM AFB, HAWAII - Two teams from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) will deploy from Hawaii this week to Papua New Guinea and Australia to conduct investigation and recovery operations to search for Americans still missing from WWII.
The five person investigation team will investigate 19 sites located as far north as Wewak, south to Port Morseby, Papua New Guinea. The 10 person recovery team will begin operations in Australia to recover the missing pilot of a P-40 that crashed during a test flight approximately 30 miles northeast of Melbourne, Australia.
Upon completion of the excavation in Australia, the recovery team will move operations to Papua New Guinea to recover a crashed B-24 [believed to be B-24D 42-40475], where 11 Americans are still missing. The site is located approximately 100 miles north of Port Moresby on the Solomon Sea.
Today, there is one American still missing from Operations Desert Shield/Storm, and there are more than 1,800 from the Vietnam War, 120 from the Cold War, more than 8,100 from the Korean War, and more than 78,000 from World War II.
The U.S. Government, the Department of Defense and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command are committed to scientific excellence and the fullest possible accounting of all Americans still missing or unaccounted for in defense of this great country. JPAC continues to fulfill our nation's promise to the POW/MIA families and those Americans still waiting to come home.
"Until they are home…"
[ News Release formally appeared at: http://www.cilhi.army.mil/PR030504.htm ]
