Officer.com Police Blogs & Podcasts

Carole Moore
Missing Persons Contributor
Officer.com

For closure on their lost loved ones.

Although many of you are too young to remember the bracelets worn by some Americans to keep alive the memories of prisoners of war or missing in action during the Vietnam conflict, I remember them because I wore one. Now, decades after that war ended, many families still hope to one day be allowed to bury their lost family member.

The Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA) is an arm of the US Joint Forces Command engaged in finding servicemen missing in the line of duty. Obviously, the hope is to find them alive – more of a chance of that in theaters such as Afghanistan and Iraq than in older conflicts like Korea and Vietnam. You can find more information on this program at: http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/

In October of 2004, Vietnamese officials repatriated five sets of remains belonging to U.S. servicemen, bringing the number of recovered remains for that conflict to 827. But despite peacetime efforts to return missing service members to their homes for burial, there are still many who never came home from war.

Organizations like the WWRM (World War II Families for the Return of the Missing), http://www.wwiimissing.com/, continue to pursue this issue.

To see photographs of missing WWII servicemen, go to: http://www.wwiimissing.com/pictures.html and remember these heroes.

Here’s this post’s missing person:
Cavil Cane Shirley disappeared from Lawrenceville, Va., in 1999. Take a look at his photograph and see if it strikes a bell.

http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200301366W