A Defense Department agency that tracks down the remains of missing military members and prisoners-of-war has been forced to suspend search missions because of the coronavirus pandemic:
- Officials with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Office said COVID-19 has had a “significant impact” on their worldwide operations.
- All field missions this month have been either been completed or terminated earlier than planned.
- Agency personnel have returned to their home base. All future missions have been postponed or canceled, at least through early June.
- The agency suspended several missions earlier than planned, including recovery operations and investigations in the Republic of Kiribati - location of the Battle of Tarawa in World War II - along with other former battlefields in the Philippines, Poland and Vietnam.
- Other than a privately-funded underwater investigation off the coast of Latvia, there are no search missions occurring anywhere, agency officials said.
- “All personnel are home and in 14 day self-isolation,” DPAA officials said in a statement.
- Most of the agency employees are now teleworking when possible to limit the number of employees in offices.
- Organized meetings for family members planned in Miami and Little Rock have been cancelled. Briefings will still be provided by telephone, DPAA officials said.
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