What Does Closure Feel Like? By Scott Althaus, Project Recover volunteer and cousin of 2Lt. Thomas V. Kelly, Jr. who was killed on March 11, 1944 and repatriated on Memorial Day 2025. Project Recover describes its mission as finding and repatriating Americans Missing In Action (MIA) “to provide recognition and closure for families and the Nation.” That word closure is an important one for describing Project Recover’s impact. I’m in one of the rare MIA family members who has experienced …
July 25, 2025 – The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), in partnership with Project Recover and other experts in the field, has publicly announced that they have positively identified the remains of 2nd Lt. Jason K. Goldwater, who had been Missing In Action since 1943. 2nd Lt. Goldwater, a member of the 13th Air Force 42nd Bombardment Group “The Crusaders”, 69th Bombardment Squadron, was a B-25 Navigator. The B-25 took off from Carney Field in Guadalcanal on the morning of July …
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has publicly announced that they have positively identified the remains of Staff Sergeant John H. Danneker, who had been missing in action since 1944. Danneker entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The initial survey and the recovery projects leading up to these identifications were completed in partnership with Project Recover and other experts in the field. Danneker was a waist gunner assigned to the 565th Bombardment Squadron, 389th Bombardment Group, 2nd …
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that, in partnership with Project Recover and other experts in the field, they accounted for AOM1c Anthony Di Petta. AOM1c Di Petta was an ordnanceman on a TBM-1c Avenger.
Major Paul A. Avolese, 35, a B-52 radar navigator during Vietnam, was accounted for on September 21, 2020, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
MAJ Paul A. Avolese was accounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Project Recover located his downed B-52 in 2020 and is honored to play a vital role in his repatriation. Project Recover humbly acknowledges MAJ Avolese’s service and sacrifice, as well as the enduring loss to his family. We are grateful and honored to play a vital role in bringing him home. The repatriation of Major Avolese and our MIAs helps resolve generational grief and awaken us to …
Navy Aviation Chief Ordnanceman Otis E. Ingram, a WWII gunner, killed in 1944, has been accounted for by the DPAA. ACOM Ingram was a turret gunner aboard a TBM-1c Avenger and a member of the U.S. Navy Torpedo Squadron Fifty One (VT-51). Project Recover located that Avenger in 2016 and turned its findings over to the DPAA. Ingram and his crewmates were on a mission to bomb a Japanese base in Malakal Harbor, Palau. His aircraft took off from the …
Navy Aviation Radioman 3rd Class Walter E. Mintus, WWII radioman, was accounted for on June 25, 2018, the DPAA announced. His funeral is scheduled for November 10th, 2018 in his hometown.
In March 2014, Project Recover located the underwater wreck of a TBM Avenger associated with missing servicemen from World War II, including Navy Reserve Aviation Radioman 2nd Class Albert P. Rybarczyk and Navy Reserve Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Ora H. Sharninghouse.
In March 2014, Project Recover discovers wreck of an F6F Hellcat and the eventual repatriation of MIA WWII Pilot, Lt. Punnell. More info on the mission here
