Defense Agency Visits Maine to Find Families of Missing Military Personnel

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine (WMTW) – Hundreds of family members are expected to attend a multi-agency family event Saturday to receive an update on their missing loved ones.

About 81,000 military personnel who participated in past military conflicts are missing. The Defense Prisoner of War and Home Office Accounting Agency estimates that approximately 38,000 of these members could be reinstated.

Just over 460 of the 81,000 missing service members are from Maine. Most of the missing Maine service members, approximately 416, served in World War II. Another 45 were in Korea and another 11 in Vietnam.

Saturday’s event will allow families to learn more about what the government is doing to bring back missing loved ones. Some briefings will discuss the process and scientific methods used to find and identify people. Families can also request updates on their service members’ cases.

“This is important because family members who have left many times have experienced multi-generational trauma when someone did not return from conflict,” said Dr. Kyle Bracken, director of DPAA’s Indo-Pacific Office.

The DPAA will provide an overview of recovery operations, details of the forensic work being carried out and the DNA analysis used to recover the remains.

“For me personally, this is an opportunity to tell the story of someone who wasn’t able to come home and tell their own story,” Bracken said.

Ellen Smith is one of 368 family members planning to attend Saturday’s event. Her uncle, Earl Dorr, was a staff sergeant in World War II and died in a plane crash nearly 80 years ago.

“I’m here essentially to represent our family, to hopefully continually communicate to the public that we are still a family working to hopefully reach a conclusion to bring him home to the United States.” , said Smith.

Smith said her uncle’s case is still active and she hopes the case will be resolved this weekend.

The all-day event will take place at the DoubleTree by Hilton in South Portland starting at 9 a.m.

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