DHA leaders tour DPAA facility, highlighting enduring partnership

Image of Military Personnel wearing a face mask signing a book . The Defense Health Agency Director, Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Place, signs a book during a lab tour at the Senator Daniel K. Inouye DPAA building, Honolulu, Hawaii, Feb. 25, 2021. DPAA has the responsibility and authority to provide the fullest possible accounting for service members and civilians unaccounted for or missing from designated past conflicts. DHA, through the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System-Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, supports the DPAA mission with medical examiner assets and all DNA testing for human identification (Photo by: Army Sgt. Mitchell Ryan).

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) hosted the Defense Health Agency (DHA) Director, Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Place, and the Senior Enlisted Leader of DHA, Army Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Gragg, at the Senator Daniel K. Inouye DPAA Center of Excellence at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, in late Feb. 2021.

DPAA has the responsibility and authority to provide the fullest possible accounting of Department of Defense personnel that are missing from designated past conflicts.

"Ideally, every health care professional should treat the living with the same level of care, dignity and respect as DPAA does for our fallen," said Place. "I'm in awe of what you do; thank you for keeping the promise."

DHA, through the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System-Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFMES-AFDIL), supports the DPAA mission with a medical examiner assigned to DPAA and approximately 4,000 DNA tests conducted annually by AFDIL in support of identifications.

Military personnel standing outside wearing face mask talking
The Defense Health Agency Director, Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Place, speaks with a service member at the Senator Daniel K. Inouye DPAA building, Honolulu, Hawaii, Feb. 25, 2021. (Photo by: Army Sgt. Mitchell Ryan).

DPAA's Joint Services medical personnel, including Army, Navy and Air Force medics, are assigned to support the agency’s numerous missions that take place around the globe. Additionally, to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, DPAA medical personnel currently assist with COVID-19 testing and vaccination at local military treatment facilities.

"Despite COVID-19 restrictions, we as an agency accounted for 120 formerly missing DoD personnel in fiscal year 2020. I am extremely proud of our team's selfless efforts," said Navy Rear Adm. Darius Banaji, DPAA Deputy Director for Operations. "We are at an inflection point operationally. Our Surgeon was instrumental in modifying our protocols, working closely with our host nation counterparts, and preparing our personnel to safely adapt to COVID-19 as we resume field missions."

Through an enduring partnership of more than three decades between DPAA and AFMES, DHA also provides a medical examiner assigned as the DPAA Science Director, who also conducts current day, non-combat death casework in support of U.S. Indo Pacific Command at the DPAA laboratory in Hawaii.

Widely-recognized as a humanitarian effort, DPAA has strong partnerships with 46 host nations whose cooperation is essential in efforts to recover the more than 81,000 unaccounted-for Department of Defense personnel, approximately 39,000 of which have been determined potentially recoverable.

The relationship between DHA and DPAA is mutually beneficial to both organizations and is a key part of the ongoing mission to find, identify and return missing Americans to their loved ones.

You also may be interested in...

Article
Feb 18, 2025

Armed Forces' DNA Lab Enters a New Era in Technology

The specially trained scientists within the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL)

As if being a world leader in understanding and utilizing DNA wasn’t a high-enough achievement, the Department of Defense DNA Operations division within the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System has set the bar to a whole new level.

Article
Oct 7, 2024

Missing And Not Forgotten Ep. 5 - DNA's Role in POW/MIA Identification

Missing And Not Forgotten is the official podcast of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Tim McMahon, the director of Dept. of Defense DNA Operations, about how DPAA partners with the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System’s DNA Identification Laboratory to use DNA as one of the most important lines of evidence with which we make identifications of the missing.

Missing And Not Forgotten is the official podcast of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Tim McMahon, the director of Dept. of Defense DNA Operations, about how DPAA partners with the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System’s DNA Identification Laboratory to use DNA as one of the most important lines of evidence with ...

Article
Aug 23, 2024

How Armed Forces Medical Examiner System Members Balance Duty and Community

U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Alyssa Williams, senior enlisted leader, poses for a photo at the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System, Dover Air Force Base, in Dover, Delaware, on Aug. 26, 2024.

The dedication to service of three Armed Forces Medical Examiner System members at Dover Air Force Base, Dover, Delaware, shows their commitment to something greater than themselves—both within the walls of their workplace and outside in the communities they serve. Three examples of this selflessness are Kenton Ellis, logistics warehouse ...

Article
Jun 25, 2024

UPGRADED: MWDs Get New Training Aids

U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Juan Salinas poses for picture

What happens when you pluck a Military Working Dog Handler from the kennels and drop him in the middle of a bunch of chemists, toxicologists, and laboratory technicians? He gets right to work.

Form/Template
Dec 1, 2023

AFRSSIR Supply Order Request

.PDF | 20.27 KB

Fill out this request to place and order with the Armed Forces Repository of Specimen Sample for the Identification of Human Remains.

Form/Template
Dec 1, 2023

AFMES Acknowledgement of Receipt of FAQs

.PDF | 29.66 KB

Acknowledges receipt of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System Frequently Asked Questions about medicolegal examinations document.

Skip subpage navigation
Refine your search