Missing in action (MIA) is acasualty classification assigned tocombatants,military chaplains,combat medics, andprisoners of war who are reported missing duringwartime orceasefire. They may have beenkilled,wounded,captured,executed, ordeserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor their grave have been positively identified. Becoming MIA has been an occupational risk for as long as there has been warfare.

Until around 1912, service personnel in most countries were not routinely issued withID tags. As a result, if someone waskilled in action and their body was not recovered until much later, there was often little or no chance of identifying the remains unless the person in question was carrying items that would identify them, or had marked their clothing or possessions with identifying information. Starting around the time of theFirst World War, nations began to issue their service personnel with purpose-made identification tags. These were usually made of some form of lightweight metal such as aluminium. However, in the case of theBritish Army, the material chosen was compressed fiber, which was not very durable. Although wearing identification tags proved to be highly beneficial, the problem remained that bodies could be completely destroyed (ranging fromtotal body disruption to outright disintegration), burned, or buried by the type of high-explosive munitions routinely used inmodern warfare or in destructions of vehicles.

Additionally, the combat environment itself could increase the likelihood of missing combatants. The odds of a combatant being declared MIA could be increased by scenarios such asjungle warfare,^[1][2]submarine warfare,^[3][4][5] aircraft crashes in remote mountainous terrain,^[6] or sea battles. Alternatively, there could be administrative errors; the actual location of a temporary battlefield grave could be misidentified or forgotten due to the "fog of war".^[7] Finally, since military forces had no strong incentive to keep detailed records of enemy dead, bodies were frequently buried (sometimes with their identification tags) in temporary graves, the locations of which were often lost^[8][9] or obliterated e.g. theforgotten mass grave at Fromelles. As a result, the remains of missing combatants might not be found for many years, if ever. When missing combatants are recovered and cannot be identified after a thorough forensic examination (including such methods asDNA testing and comparison ofdental records) the remains are interred with a tombstone which indicates their unknown status.

The development ofgenetic fingerprinting in the late 20th century means that if cell samples from a cheek swab are collected from service personnel prior to deployment to a combat zone, identity can be established using even a small fragment of human remains. Although it is possible to take genetic samples from a close relative of the missing person, it is preferable to collect such samples directly from the subjects themselves. It is a fact of warfare that some combatants are likely to go missing in action and never be found. However, by wearing identification tags and using modern technology, the numbers involved can be considerably reduced. In addition to the obvious military advantages, conclusively identifying the remains of missing service personnel is highly beneficial to the surviving relatives. Having positive identification makes it somewhat easier to come to terms with their loss and move on with their lives. Otherwise, some relatives may suspect that the missing person is still alive somewhere and may return someday.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15]} However, many of these identifying procedures are not typically used for combatants who are members of militias, mercenary armies, insurrections, and other irregular forces.

The numerous wars that have occurred over the centuries have created many MIAs. The list is long and includes most battles that have ever been fought by any nation. The usual problems of identification caused by rapid decomposition were exacerbated by the fact that it was common practice to loot the remains of the dead for any valuables e.g. personal items and clothing. This made the already difficult task of identification even harder. Thereafter, the dead were routinely buried inmass graves and scant official records were retained. Notable examples include suchmedieval battles asTowton,^[16] theHundred Years' War, TheBattle of Alcácer Quibir where KingSebastian of Portugal disappeared, the laterEnglish Civil Wars, andNapoleonic Wars^[17][18] together with any battle taking place until around the middle of the 19th century.

Starting around the time of theCrimean War (1853-1856),American Civil War (1861-1865), andFranco-Prussian War (1870-1871), it became more common to make formal efforts to identify individual soldiers. However, since there was no formal system ofID tags at the time, this could be difficult during the process of battlefield clearance. Even so, there had been a notable shift in perceptions e.g. where the remains of a soldier in Confederate uniform were recovered from, say, theGettysburg battlefield, he would be interred in a single grave with a headstone which stated that he was an unknownConfederate soldier. This change in attitudes coincided with theGeneva Conventions, the first of which was signed in 1864. Although theFirst Geneva Convention did not specifically address the issue of MIAs, the reasoning behind it (which specified the humane treatment of wounded enemy soldiers) was influential. The Geneva Convention was in part inspired by the experiences ofHenri Dunant after theBattle of Solferino in 1859, where 40,000 wounded soldiers had lingered in agony for lack of care, facilities and logistics to ameliorate their condition. Dunant also founded theRed Cross (in 1863), an organization dedicated to reducing the suffering of those wounded in war and ensuring humane treatment of POWs. Summary executions of POWs (or in the past their abduction intoslavery orhuman sacrifice) are another common cause for casualties to become missing in action. TheHague Convention of 1899 was the first piece of codifiedInternational law to explicitly outlaw such collective punishment as it banned "no quarter". Now any execution of POWs would require a formalcourt martial creating a paper trail — at least for armed forces that followed theLaws of War.

Technology and logistics had also changed, allowing for better handling of the dead. Railroads were used during the Crimean War and played a decisive role in several battles of the American Civil War and – especially the quick mobilisation of Prussian and allied forces – at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War. Where previously there were hardly any alternatives to bury the dead close to where they fell before their bodies decomposed, now they could – if logistics allowed – be transported elsewhere for identification and proper burial. Those killed in action at sea had previously simply been thrown overboard or their bodies pickled in distilled alcohol for preservation (as happened withHoratio Nelson). Now, steamships allowed for much quicker transport than sailing or rowing vessels ever had.

The phenomenon of MIAs became particularly notable during World War I, where the mechanized nature ofmodern warfare meant that a single battle could cause astounding numbers of casualties. For example, in 1916, over 300,000 Allied and German combatants were killed in theBattle of the Somme. A total of 19,240 British and Commonwealth combatants werekilled in action or died of wounds on thefirst day of that battle alone. It is therefore not surprising that theThiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme in France bears the names of 72,090 British andCommonwealth combatants, all of whom went missing in action during the Battle of the Somme, were never found, and have no known grave. Similarly, theMenin Gate memorial inBelgium commemorates 54,896 missing Allied combatants who are known to have been killed in theYpres Salient. TheDouaumont ossuary, meanwhile, contains 130,000 unidentifiable sets ofFrench andGerman remains from theBattle of Verdun.

Even in the 21st century, the remains of missing combatants are recovered from the former battlefields of theWestern Front every year.^[19] These discoveries happen regularly, often during the course of agricultural work or construction projects.^{[20][21][22][23][24][25][26]} Typically, the remains of one or several men are found at a time. However, occasionally the numbers recovered are much larger, such as the mass grave atFromelles (excavated in 2009), which contained the skeletal remains of no less than 250 Allied soldiers.^{[27][28][29][30]} Another example is the excavation which took place atCarspach (Alsace region of France) in early 2012, which uncovered the remains of 21 German soldiers, lost in an underground shelter since 1918, after being buried by a large-calibre Britishartillery shell.^[31] Regardless, efforts are made to identify any remains found via a thorough forensic examination. If this is achieved, attempts are made to trace any living relatives. However, it is frequently impossible to identify the remains, other than to establish some basic details of the unit they served with. In the case of British and Commonwealth MIAs, the headstone is inscribed with the maximum amount of information that is known about the person.^[32] Typically, such information is deduced from metallic objects such as brass buttons and shoulder flashes bearing regimental/unit insignia found on the body. As a result, headstones are inscribed with such information as "A Soldier of TheCameronians" or "An AustralianCorporal" etc. Where nothing is known other than the soldier's national allegiance, the headstone is inscribed "A Soldier of The Great War". The term "Sailor" or "Airman" can be substituted, as appropriate.

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  Grave of an unknown sailor from theSS Armenian, torpedoed bySM U-24 in 1915
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  Graves of unknown French soldiers killed during World War One. Each concrete cross has a metal plaque bearing the word "Inconnu" i.e. "Unknown"
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  Ossuary at theGallipoli battlefield, containing the remains of 3000 unidentified French soldiers who died in 1915
• 
  Grave of 2 unknown German soldiers atTyne Cot War Cemetery

There are many missing combatants and other persons in service from World War II.^{[33][34][35][36][37][38]}In theUnited States Armed Forces, 78,750 personnel missing in action had been reported by the end of the war, representing over 19 percent of the total of 405,399 killed during the conflict.^[39]

As with MIAs from the First World War, it is a routine occurrence for the remains of missing personnel killed during the Second World War to be periodically discovered.^[40] Usually they are found purely by chance (e.g. during construction or demolition work) though on some occasions they are recovered following deliberate, targeted searches.^{[41][42][43][44]} As with the First World War, in western Europe MIAs are generally found as individuals, or in twos or threes. However, sometimes the numbers in a group are considerably larger e.g.the mass grave at Villeneuve-Loubet, which contained the remains of 14German soldiers killed in August 1944.^[40] Others are located at remote aircraft crash sites in various countries.^[45][46][47]But in eastern Europe and Russia,World War II casualties include approximately two million missing Germans, and many mass graves remain to be found. Almost half a million German MIAs have been buried in new graves since the end of the Cold War. Most of them will stay unknown. TheGerman War Graves Commission is spearheading the effort.^[48] Similarly, there are approximately 4 million missing Russian service personnel scattered across the formerEastern Front, fromLeningrad down toStalingrad, though around 300 volunteer groups make periodic searches of old battlefields to recover human remains for identification and reburial.^[49]

During the 2000s, there was renewed attention within and without the U.S. military to finding remains of the missing, especially in the European Theatre and especially since aging witnesses and local historians were dying off.^[50] The group World War II Families for the Return of the Missing was founded in 2005 to work with theJoint POW/MIA Accounting Command and other governmental entities towards locating and repatriating the remains of Americans lost in the conflict.^[50] The president of the group said in reference to the far more publicised efforts to find remains of U.S. dead from theVietnam War, "Vietnam had advocates. This was an older generation, and they didn't know who to turn to."^[50]

On the night of 30 April 1945, a U.S. Army amphibious transport vehicle (aDUKW) of the10th Mountain Division sank during a crossing ofLake Garda in northern Italy. Twenty-five soldiers aboard were declaredmissing in action; only one survived. The vehicle, carrying men, equipment, and a 75 mm pack howitzer, foundered during rough weather nearTorbole, shortly before the end of combat in Italy. For decades, the incident remained one of the unresolved MIA cases from the Italian Campaign.

In 2012, the Italian volunteer rescue groupVolontari del Garda located the wreck at a depth of more than 270 metres using sonar and remotely operated vehicles.^[51][52] The story of the missing soldiers and subsequent recovery efforts has since been documented in historical research and media works, including the 2023 filmThe Lost Mountaineers produced with the participation of the Italian research groupAssociazione Benàch.^[53]

In 2008, investigators began to conduct searches onTarawa atoll in the Pacific Ocean, trying to locate the remains of 139American Marines, missing since theBattle of Tarawa in 1943.^[54] Between 2013 and 2016, the remains of 37 US Marines were recovered from Tarawa. Among those recovered was Medal of Honor recipientAlexander Bonnyman.

According to official US Department of Army and Department of Navy casualty records, submitted to Congress in 1946 and updated in 1953, the combined possible total of missing service personnel worldwide is closer to approximately 6600 and probably considerably fewer.^{[citation needed]} Significantly, DPAA continues to list as "unaccounted for" the fiveSullivan brothers—arguably the single most accounted-for group of WWII casualties ever recorded. Since DPAA alone designates such WWII personnel as the entire crew of theUSS Arizona and most of the crew of theUSS Oklahoma as both "missing" and "unaccounted for" it is likely that DPAA records keeping is irregular and prone to opinion rather than fact.^{[clarification needed]}

As of October 6, 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, there were a total of 73,684 MIAs, of whom 1,843 are accounted for and 71,841 remain unaccounted for.^[55]

• 
  Graves of 11 unknown British combatants killed during World War II, inRhodesCWGC war cemetery
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  Grave of an unknownIndian Army combatant inLae War Cemetery,Papua New Guinea
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  Wallcrypts containing unknownItalian combatants killed during World War II, in a Rhodes cemetery
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  Graves of unknownEritrean Ascaris killed in 1941 during theBattle of Keren
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  Grave of 3 unknown German soldiers killed during World War II, inCannock Chase German Military Cemetery
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  Grave of unknown Indian Army soldier,Taukkyan War Cemetery,Burma
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  Grave of unknown British or Commonwealth soldier,Taukkyan War Cemetery,Burma
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  Grave of 2 unknown German soldiers inLa Cambe German war cemetery
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  Grave of an unknown German soldier in La Cambe war cemetery

The US Department of Defense DPAA gives dates for theKorean War from June 27, 1950, to January 31, 1955.^[63] Between June and October 1950, an estimated 700 civilian and US military POWs had been captured by the North Koreans. By August 1953, only 262 of those captured were still alive. One of the survivors wasPrivate First Class Wayne A. "Johnnie" Johnson, who secretly documented the deaths of 496 US military and Korean/European civilian POWs. Johnson would later be awarded theSilver Star medal for valor in 1996.^[64][65]

In August 1953, GeneralJames Van Fleet, who had led U.S. and UN forces in Korea, estimated that "a large percentage" of those service members listed as missing in action were alive.^[66] (Coincidentally, General Van Fleet's own son CaptainJames Alward Van Fleet Jr was MIA from a United States Air Force mission over North Korea on April 4, 1952.)

The total number of Korean War MIAS/remains not recovered was 8,154.^[67] In 1954, duringOperation Glory, the remains of 4,023 UN personnel were received from North Korea, of which 1,868 were Americans. Out of the recovered US remains, 848 could not be identified.^[68][69] Between 1982 and 2016, an additional 781 unknown remains were recovered from North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, andPunchbowl Cemetery in Hawaii,^[57] of which a total of 459 had been identified as of June 2018^[update].^[70] 950 sets of remains were uncovered in South Korea, and of 20 sets of remains, 11 were identified.^[71]

The U.S.Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (now theDefense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) and the equivalent South Korean command are actively involved in trying to locate and identify remains of both countries' personnel.^[72] Remains of missing combatants from the Korean War are periodically recovered and identified in both North and South Korea.^[73][74] It is thought that 13,000 South Korean and 2,000 U.S. combatants are buried in theKorean Demilitarized Zone alone and were never found.^[75] The 1991–1993United States Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs investigated some outstanding issues and reports related to the fate of U.S. service personnel still missing from the Korean War.^[76] In 1996, the Defense Department stated that there was no clear evidence any of the U.S. prisoners were still alive.^[77]

As of 2005^[update], at least 500South Korean prisoners of war were believed to be still detained by the North Korean regime.^[78] That same year, the U.S. suspended talks with North Korea over the recovery of MIAs,^[79] as the George W. Bush administration had broken off relations between the US and North Korea, claiming it couldn't guarantee the Americans safety.^[80] Despite this, New Mexico GovernorBill Richardson traveled toPyongyang in 2007 and returned with six sets of remains.^[80] In 2010, it was reported that the Barack Obama administration was reversing the Bush administration's suspended talks in regard to North Korea MIAs,^[81] and in 2011, theVeterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) adopted Resolution # 423, calling for renewed discussions with North Korea to recover Americans missing in action.^[82] On July 27, 2011, CongressmanCharles Rangel introduced a congressional resolution calling on North Korea to repatriate POW/MIAS and abductees from North Korea.^[83]

In January 2012, it was announced that members of JPAC would go to North Korea in the spring to search for an estimated 5,000 MIAs in theUnsan & theChosin Reservoir areas,^[84] and in February, talks were going ahead between the US and North Korea to resume discussions to recover US MIAs after seven years.^[82] On March 8, the US announced it would search for MIAs in North Korea,^[79] but on March 21, the Obama administration suspended talks with North Korea over the recovery of US servicemen killed and missing from the war.^[85][86] In response, Korea War/Cold War Families Inc. started an online petition for Obama to resolve Cold/Korean War mysteries in 2013.^[87] In October 2014, North Korea announced it was going to move the remains of about 5,000 U.S. combatants en masse in an apparent attempt to force the U.S. to restart MIA recovery.^[88] North Korea also gave a warning that "...North Korea blamed the United States 'hostile policy' for causing the remains recovery missions to end." The statement warned that "remains of American soldiers would soon be lost", as they were being "carried away en masse due to construction projects of hydro-power stations, land rezoning and other gigantic natureremaking projects, flood damage, etc..."^[89] As of December 2015, the DPAA "does not currently conduct" operations in North Korea.^[90][91]

On June 24, 2016, Congressmen Rangel,John Conyers,Sam Johnson introduced House Resolution No. 799,^[92] calling on the U.S. Government to resume talks in regard to the US MIAs.^[93] House Resolution No. 799 was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific on September 27,^[94] but it was not enacted.^[95]

In the wake of the June 2018 meeting between U.S. President Trump and North Korean leader Kim, the U.S. received 55 boxes of MIA remains on July 27, 2018—the 65th anniversary of the Korean War truce.^[96] That year, the remains of 1 North Korean were repatriated to North Korea from the U.S., while on September 27, the remains of 64 South Korean soldier MIAs were repatriated to South Korea from the United States.^[97] By September 28, 2021, 77 Korean War MIAs had been identified from the 55 MIA boxes.^[98] The total identification amount of the remains in the boxes rose to 82 by April 1, 2022, and out of the 612 remains that were recovered from 1996 to 2005, 16 remained unknown.^[98] In the summer of 2018, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea expressed his hopes to recover the remains of Korean soldiers from the DMZ,^[99] as South Korea MIAs are believed to number 120,000.^[80] On June 25, 2020, the remains of 147 South Korean MIAs soldiers were repatriated to South Korea from the United States.^[100] The following month, it was reported that 50,000 South Korean POWS were never repatriated from North Korea in 1953.^[101]

On September 22, 2021, the first US-South Korean Joint repatriation service was held, where the U.S. received the remains of 1 of 6 U.S. soldiers to be repatriated, and South Korea received the remains of two of the 68 ROK Soldiers to be repatriated.^[102] Two more US-South Korean repatriation services have since been held, with the second service taking place on February 22, 2023, and the third on June 25, 2023. During the February 22 service, the U.S. received from South Korea the remains of 1 U.S. soldier,^[103] while the June 25 service saw South Korea receive the remains of 7 ROK soldiers, of whom 1 was identified. Other previous repatriation ceremonies in 2012, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2021 have returned the remains of 200 ROK soldiers to South Korea.^[104]

By September 9, 2024, the US Department of Defense had accounted for the 700th Missing in Action soldier from the Korean War, which was Cpl. Billie Charles Driver of the 8th US Cavalry Regiment.^[105] On March 26, 2025, the US Department of Defense accounted for the 100th service member identified from an estimated 250 remains returned by North Korea in 2018, with the newly identified remains being that of 1st Lt. William H. Hott.^[106]

As of October 6, 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the total number of MIAs was 8,157, of which 762 were accounted for, and 7,395 remain unaccounted for.^[107]

Remains of nine sets of remains of Korean War MIA servicemen have also been discovered at Arrowhead Hill, aka Hill 281Battle of White Horse, which is located in theKorean Demilitarized Zone,^[108] during minesweeping operations between October and November 2018.^[109][110] Arrowhead Hill had previously been selected for both Koreas to jointly conduct a pilot remains recovery project.^[111]On 27 September 2020, South Korea handed over 117 remains at Incheon Airport. Cui Jonggeon, the first official of theMinistry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea, and Chang Zhengguo, Vice Minister of Veterans Affairs of China attended the ceremony. The remains had been excavated in Arrow Hill (the battle area of theBattle of White Horse) in theNorth Korean Demilitarized Zone^[112] in 2019.^[113]AYun-20 plane carried the remains.^[114][115] After they had arrived in China, three of the remains were identified using relics.^[115][116]

A number of Australian combatants and POWs have also never been recovered from Korea.^[117] Of 340 Australian servicemen killed in the Korean War, 43 are listed as MIA.^[118]

Since 1996, the remains ofKorean People's Army combatants recovered from battlefield exhumations across South Korea have been buried in theCemetery for North Korean and Chinese Soldiers, and the majority of the over 770 burials are unknowns.^[119]

Following theParis Peace Accords of 1973, 591 U.S.prisoners of war were returned duringOperation Homecoming. The U.S. listed about 1,350 Americans as prisoners of war or missing in action and roughly 1,200 Americans reported killed in action and body not recovered.^[120] By the early 1990s, this had been reduced to a total of 2,255 unaccounted for from the war, which constituted less than 4 percent of the total 58,152 U.S. service members killed.^[39] This was by far the smallest proportion in the nation's history to that point.^[39]

About 80 percent of those missing were airmen who were shot down over North Vietnam or Laos, usually over remote mountains, tropical rain forest, or water; the rest typically disappeared in confused fighting in dense jungles.^[39] Investigations of these incidents have involved determining whether the men involved survived their shootdown and, if not, efforts to recover their remains. POW/MIA activists played a role in pushing the U.S. government to improve its efforts in resolving the fates of the missing. Progress in doing so was slow until the mid-1980s, when relations between the U.S. and Vietnam began to improve and more cooperative efforts were undertaken. Normalization of U.S. relations with Vietnam in the mid-1990s was a culmination of this process.

Considerable speculation and investigation has gone to a theory that a significant number of these men were captured asprisoners of war by Communist forces in the two countries and kept aslive prisoners after the war's conclusion for the United States in 1973. A vocal group of POW/MIA activists maintains that there has been a concerted conspiracy by the Vietnamese government and every American government since then to hide the existence of these prisoners. The U.S. government has steadfastly denied that prisoners were left behind or that any effort has been made to cover up their existence.^[121] Popular culture has reflected the "live prisoners" theory, most notably in the 1985 filmRambo: First Blood Part II. Several congressional investigations have looked into the issue, culminating with the largest and most thorough, theUnited States Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs of 1991–1993 led by SenatorsJohn Kerry,Bob Smith, andJohn McCain. Its unanimous conclusion found "no compelling evidence that proves that any American remains alive in captivity in Southeast Asia."^[76]

This missing in action issue has been a highly emotional one to those involved, and is often considered the last depressing, divisive aftereffect of the Vietnam War. To skeptics, "live prisoners" is aconspiracy theory unsupported by motivation or evidence, and the foundation for a cottage industry of charlatans who have preyed upon the hopes of the families of the missing. As two skeptics wrote in 1995, "The conspiracy myth surrounding the Americans who remained missing after Operation Homecoming in 1973 had evolved to baroque intricacy. By 1992, there were thousands of zealots—who believed with cultlike fervor that hundreds of American POWs had been deliberately and callously abandoned in Indochina after the war, that there was a vast conspiracy within the armed forces and the executive branch—spanning five administrations—to cover up all evidence of this betrayal, and that the governments of Communist Vietnam and Laos continued to hold an unspecified number of living American POWs, despite their adamant denials of this charge."^[122] Believers reject such notions; asPulitzer Prize winning journalistSydney Schanberg wrote in 1994, "It is not conspiracy theory, not paranoid myth, not Rambo fantasy. It is only hard evidence of a national disgrace: American prisoners were left behind at the end of the Vietnam War. They were abandoned because six presidents and official Washington could not admit their guilty secret. They were forgotten because the press and most Americans turned away from all things that reminded them of Vietnam."^[123]

There are also a large number ofNorth Vietnamese andViet Cong MIAs from the Vietnam war whose remains have yet to be recovered. In 1974, GeneralVõ Nguyên Giáp stated that they had 330,000 missing in action.^[124] As of 1999, estimates of those missing were usually around 300,000.^[125][126] This figure does not include those missing from former South Vietnamese armed forces, who are given little consideration under the Vietnamese regime.^[125] The Vietnamese government did not have any organized program to search for its own missing, in comparison to what it had established to search for American missing.^[125][127] The discrepancy angered some Vietnamese; as one said, "It's crazy for the Americans to keep asking us to find their men. We lost several times more than the Americans did. In any war there are many people who disappear. They just disappear."^[125] In the 2000s, thousands of Vietnamese were hiringpsychics in an effort to find the remains of missing family members.^[126][128] The Vietnamese Army organizes what it considers to be the best of the psychics, as part of its parapsychology force trying to find remains.^[128] Additionally, remains dating from the earlierFrench colonial era are sometimes discovered: in January 2009, the remains of at least 50 anti-French resistance fighters dating from circa 1946 to 1947 were discovered in graves located under a former market in central Hanoi.^[129]

As of October 6, 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, U.S. military and Civilian personnel totaled 2,633 MIAs, of which 1,067 were accounted for and 1,566 remain unaccounted for.^[130]

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, as of September 20, 2025, there were still 126 U.S. servicemen unaccounted for from the Cold War.^[131]

• April 8, 1950, a U.S. NavyPB4Y-2 Privateer, (Bureau Number: 59645), flying out ofWiesbaden, Germany, was shot down by Soviet fighters over theBaltic Sea. The entire crew of 10 remains unaccounted for.
• November 6, 1951, a U.S. NavyP2V Neptune, (Bureau Number: 124283), was shot down over theSea of Japan. The entire crew of 10 remains unaccounted for.
• June 13, 1952, a U.S. Air ForceRB-29 Superfortress, (Serial Number: 44-61810), stationed at Yokota Air Base, Japan, was shot down over theSea of Japan. The entire crew of 12 remains unaccounted for.
• October 7, 1952, a U.S. Air ForceRB-29 Superfortress, (Serial Number: 44-61815), stationed at Yokota Air Base, Japan was shot down north ofHokkaido Island, Japan. Of the eight crewmen on board, seven remain unaccounted for.
• November 28, 1952, a CIACivil Air TransportC-47 Skytrain aircraft flying over China was shot down, 2 captured and 2 killed; one of the two killed American civilians remains unaccounted for.^[132]
• January 18, 1953, a U.S. NavyP2V Neptune, (Bureau Number: 127744), with 13 crewmen aboard, was shot down by the Chinese, in theFormosa Straits. Six crew members remain unaccounted for.
• July 29, 1953, a U.S. Air ForceRB-50 Superfortress, (Serial Number: 47-145), stationed at Yokota Air Base, Japan, was shot down over theSea of Japan. Of the 17 crew members on board, 14 remain unaccounted for.
• May 6, 1954, a CIA Air transportC-119 Flying Boxcar aircraft flown byJames B. McGovern Jr. flying over Northern Vietnam was shot down. One of the two Americans onboard remains unaccounted for.
• April 17, 1955, a U.S. Air ForceRB-47 Stratojet, (Serial Number: 51-2054), based at Eielson Air Base, Alaska, was shot down near the southern point ofKamchatka Peninsula, Russia. The entire crew of three remains unaccounted for.
• August 22, 1956, a U.S. NavyP4M Mercator, (Bureau Number: 124362), was shot down off the coast of China. Of the 16 crew members on board, 12 remain unaccounted for.
• September 10, 1956, a U.S. Air ForceRB-50 Superfortress, (Serial Number: 47-133), based at Yokota Air Base, Japan, with a crew of 16, was lost inTyphoon Emma over the Sea of Japan. The entire crew remains unaccounted for.
• July 1, 1960, a U.S. Air ForceRB-47 Stratojet, (Serial Number: 53-4281), stationed at RAF Brize Norton, England, was shot down over theBarents Sea. Of the six crew members on board, three remain unaccounted for.
• December 14, 1965, a U.S. Air ForceRB-57 Canberra, (Serial Number: 63-13287), was lost over the Black Sea, flying out of Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. The entire crew of two remains unaccounted for.
• April 15, 1969, a U.S. NavyEC-121 Warning Star, (Bureau Number: 135749), was shot down by North Korean fighters. Of the 31 men on board, 29 remain unaccounted for. (see1969 EC-121 shootdown incident).

The 1991–1993United States Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs investigated some outstanding issues and reports related to the fate of U.S. service personnel still missing from the Cold War.^[76] In 1992, Russian PresidentBoris Yeltsin told the committee that the Soviet Union had held survivors of spy planes shot down in the early 1950s in prisons or psychiatric facilities.^[133][134] RussianColonel GeneralDmitri Volkogonov, co-leader of theU.S.–Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs, said that to his knowledge no Americans were currently being held against their will within the borders of the former Soviet Union.^[76] The Select Committee concluded that it "found evidence that some U.S. POWs were held in the former Soviet Union after WW II, the Korean War and Cold War incidents," and that it "cannot, based on its investigation to date, rule out the possibility that one or more U.S. POWs from past wars or incidents are still being held somewhere within the borders of the former Soviet Union."^[76]

In theIndo-Pakistan War of 1971, two companies of the Indian Army's15th Punjab (formerly First Patiala) were attacked by four brigades of the Pakistan Army on 3 December 1971 at 1835 hours. Nearly 4,000 Pakistani men attacked the Indian side with 15 tanks and heavy artillery support. The Indian commanders included Major Waraich, Major Singh's and Major Kanwaljit Sandhu, who was badly injured. Major SPS Waraich was reported captured, as were manyJCOs and men as the squadrons were taken by surprise and had little time to get to their bunkers. A Pakistani radio news telecast reported (inUrdu) thatMaj Waraich hamari hiraasat mein hain (Maj Waraich is in our custody). There was a subsequent report that Maj Waraich was in aNorth West Frontier jail. Their current status is unknown. They are listed as missing by the Indian Government along with 52 others including a Maj Ashok Suri who wrote a letter to his father in 1975 fromKarachi stating that he was alive and well. Pakistan denies holding any of the soldiers missing in action.

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TheIran–Iraq War of 1980–1988 left tens of thousands of Iranian and Iraqi combatants and prisoners of war still unaccounted for.^[135][136] Some counts include civilians who disappeared during the conflict.^[136] One estimate is that more than 52,000 Iraqis went missing in the war.^[137] Officially, the government of Iran lists 8,000 as missing.^[136]

Following up on these cases is often difficult because no accurate or surviving documentation exists.^[135] The situation in Iraq is additionally difficult because unknown hundreds of thousands persons are missing due to Iraq's later conflicts, both internal and external, and in Iran due to its being a largely closed society.^[135] In addition, relations between the countries remained quite poor for a long time; the last POWs from the war were not exchanged until 2003^[138] and relations did not begin to improve until after the regime change brought on by the 2003 onset of theIraq War.^[136] Some cases are brought forward when mass graves are discovered in Iraq, holding the bodies of Iranians once held prisoner.^[136] Websites have been started to attempt to track the fates of members of theIslamic Republic of Iran Air Force shot down and captured over Iraq.^[139]

TheInternational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been active in trying to resolve MIA issues from the war; in October 2008, twenty years after the end of the war, the ICRC forged a memorandum of understanding with the two countries to share information collected in pursuit of resolving cases.^[136] Families are still desperate for knowledge about the fate of their loved ones.^[135]

In Iran, efforts at answering families' questions and identifying remains are led by thePOWs and Missing Commission of theIslamic Republic of Iran Army, theRed Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and theFoundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs.^[140]

In Iraq, efforts are led by theMinistry of Human Rights.^[135][137]

According to theDefense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, 47 Americans were listed as POW/MIAs at some point duringOperation Desert Storm.^[141] At the conclusion of theGulf War of 1991, U.S. forces resolved all but one of those cases: 21 Prisoners of War were repatriated, 23 bodies were recovered and 2 bodies were lost over the Gulf and therefore classified as Killed-In-Action, Body Not Recovered.^[142] That one MIA case, that of U.S. Lt. Cmdr.Michael Scott Speicher, became quite well known. He was reported as missing after hisF/A-18 was shot down in northern Iraq on the first night of the war.^[143] Over the years his status was changed from missing to killed in action to missing-captured, a move that suggested he was alive and imprisoned in Iraq. In 2002, his possible situation became a more high-profile issue in the build-up to theIraq War;The Washington Times ran five successive front-page articles about it in March 2002 and in September 2002, U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush mentioned Speicher in a speech to theUnited Nations General Assembly as part of his case for war. However, despite the 2003 invasion of Iraq and U.S. military control of the country, Speicher was not found, and his status remained under debate.^[143][144] It was eventually resolved in August 2009 when his remains were found in the Iraq desert where, according to local civilians, he was buried following his crash in 1991.^[145][146]

How many Iraqi forces went missing as a result of the war is not readily known, as estimates of Iraqi casualties overall range considerably.

The two cases KIABNR:^[147]

• Lt. Cmdr. Barry T. Cooke, U.S. Navy, was lost on February 2, 1991, when his A-6 aircraft went down in the Persian Gulf.
• Lt. Robert J. Dwyer, U.S. Navy, was lost on February 5, 1991, when his FA-18 aircraft went down in the Persian Gulf.

The US Defense POW/MIA website states, "...more than 82,000 Americans remain missing from WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the Gulf Wars/other conflicts. Out of the 82,000 missing, 75% of the losses are located in the Indo-Pacific, and over 41,000 of the missing are presumed lost at sea (i.e. ship losses, known aircraft water losses, etc.)^[148]

As of September 20, 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the number of unaccounted for from the category of the Iraqi Theater and other conflicts is 6.

Those listed as MIAs are:

• CaptainPaul F. Lorence (Operation El Dorado Canyon - 1986)
• Lt. Cmdr. Barry T. Cooke & Lt. Robert J. Dwyer (Operation Desert Storm - 1991)
• Civilian contractorsKirk von Ackermann, Timothy E. Bell, & Adnan al-Hilawi (Operation Iraqi Freedom - 2003–2010).^[149]

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Military animals can also be officially declared missing in action.^[150]

• American Merchant Marine Veterans Memorial
• DUSTWUN (abbreviation forduty status—whereabouts unknown)
• East Coast Memorial to the Missing of World War II
• West Coast Memorial to the Missing of World War II
• Garden of the Missing in Action
• Known unto God
• Honolulu Memorial
• Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

• Media related toMissing in action at Wikimedia Commons
• The dictionary definition ofmissing in action at Wiktionary
• DoD Instruction 1300.18 "Personnel Casualty Matters, Policies, and Procedures" From the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, January 8, 2008
• Video presentation describing the discovery and identification of 14 German soldiers from a mas grave in Southern France
• U.S.-Russia Joint MIA/POW Commission
• Documentary showing the recovery and reburial of missing soldiers in the area of Stalingrad
• Report of the State Senate Committee on POW/MIA Affairs at the Library of Congress
• Video showing the recovery of several missing in action German soldiers from World War II in 2006

• Military personnel missing in action
• Military personnel
• Military terminology
• War casualties

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