POW/MIA command in Hawaii has new name

By

The Associated Press

U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Kelly McKeague, Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency (DPAA) interim deputy director, delivers remarks during the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC) Deactivation Ceremony Jan. 30, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam-Hawaii. The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO), select functions of the U.S. Air Forces Life Sciences Equipment Laboratory (LSEL) and JPAC officially merged as part of the ceremony to form the newly established DPAA. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Christopher Hubenthal)

HONOLULU — The military’s former Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii has a new name that reflects a merger of offices.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports the new agency is called the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

The change involves a merger between JPAC in Hawaii, the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office in Washington, D.C., and some functions of the Air Force’s Ohio-based Life Sciences Equipment Laboratory.

The Pentagon announced in January that the interim director of the new agency is Rear Adm. Mike Franken.

Former JPAC commander, Maj. Gen. Kelly McKeague, is serving as interim deputy director.

The new agency will direct the troubled effort to search for America’s missing war dead, two years after an internal report found the current program was mismanaged and wasteful.

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