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 …
Project Recover is pleased to announce the appointment of its newest board member, Vice Admiral Kenneth Whitesell, United States Navy retired. Kenneth’s introduction to and journey toward this unique organization began over Memorial Day weekend, 2023, when Mount Soledad National Veterans Memorial chose to honor and memorialize former MIA, Aviation Radioman 3rd Class Walter Mintus. As then the Commander of the Naval Air Forces, he was invited to share the podium with Project Recover’s Pat Scannon. As part of his …
On Sunday, May 26th, we woke up to some light Seattle rain showers and temps in the low 50s. After a quick breakfast at Corner Café, CEO Derek Abbey, COO Adrian De La Rosa, Dir. of Community & Donor Relations Michelle Abbey, and new Team Member MaryJane Harris, now fondly known as the Central Oregon Team, set off for the potential crash site of a WWII era plane. Mission information The call came in several months ago when someone had …
Hanna Friedlander joined the Project Recover team in 2022. After her mission with Project Recover in March 2023, she graciously offered to take the time to share with us her experience and thoughts around her first mission. Please note that we purposefully cannot publicly share details about this open case via report or photos. This is out of respect for the family of our MIA and our partnership with DPAA. This was a dream, something I had yearned to do …
Project Recover is proud to announce that Hanna Friedlander was named Michigan State Police (MSP) 2022 Civilian of the Year. Hanna works with MSP Intelligence Operations as a Human Remains Analyst and is a Project Recover team member.
More than 20 years ago, Pat Scannon was reading a book late at night on World War in the Pacific. On the last page of the book, the author included a quote from “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon.
Project Recover is proud to announce the release of To What Remains, a movie from Imperative Entertainment and ABRAMORAMA about American MIAs and Project Recover’s mission to bring them home.
Project Recover met with Legion Undersea Services to pack for our first MIA Recovery Mission in Palau later this year.
Project Recover is pleased to announce a partnership with Legion Undersea Services to recover MIAs from underwater crash sites globally.
