U.S. military MIA/POW organizations consolidate

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- All U.S. military agencies and laboratories that work to account for the military prisoners of war and missing troops are consolidated into one agency.

The consolidation, effective Jan. 12, follows a review ordered last year by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to bring together the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, the Joint Personnel Accounting Command and related laboratories.

"Finding, recovering and identifying the remains of these individuals is one of our highest responsibilities, and I believed that DOD could more effectively and transparently account for our missing personnel while ensuring their families receive timely and accurate information," Hagel said of the consolidation.

The new agency – the Defense Personnel Accounting Agency -- will be responsible for the comprehensive oversight of personnel accounting resources, research and operations. It will also centralize communications with family members of the missing and "streamline the identification process; centralize budgetary resources; improve the search, recovery, and identification process; and develop proposals to expand public/private partnerships," Hagel said.

Navy Rear Adm. Michael Franken will be the agency's interim director; Air Force Maj. Gen. Kelly McKeague will serve as deputy director; and Army Lt. Gen. Michael Linnington will be agency's senior adviser to Christine Wormuth, undersecretary of defense for policy, whose office will oversee the agency, the Defense Department said.

About 83,000 U.S. military personnel remain missing and unaccounted for from past U.S. conflicts.

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