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Dr. Pat Scannon founded Project Recover, formerly BentProp, shortly after a trip to Palau in 1993, in which he helped locate the Japanese trawler George H.W. Bush sunk in 1944.

After the rest of the dive team left, Pat hired a guide to show them other artifacts from World War II. It was then that Pat first saw the 65-foot wing of an American B-24 bomber lying in shallow water along a coral island in Palau. Other than leading him to it, the guide could give Pat no information about the wing. For Pat, the wing was more than a hunk of metal. It represented a forgotten battle and brave men who had fought and died there. It represented stories lost to the chaos of war, the annals of time, and the secret stillness of a watery grave. All were stories unknown to the airmen’s families.

At present, more than 81,000 Americans remain missing from WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the Gulf Wars/other conflicts. Out of the more than 81,000 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.).

• World War II - 72,064
• Korean War - 7,467
• Vietnam - 1,575
• Cold War - 126
• Gulf War and Libya Operations - 6

The Project Recover team has assembled, from an extensive archival search, more than 700 cases associated with more than 3000 missing Americans. Under the direction of Project Recover’s CEO, the team prioritizes missions based on the likelihood of success.

Project Recover is not government funded, nor are we a government affiliated organization. The ability to continue our search for MIAs relies heavily on the generosity of individuals, foundations, and corporations.

Project Recover has been one of many partners of the Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), a government organization, since the inception of their public/private partnership program in 2015. This means that from time to time, DPAA will grant us a contract for assistance related to a mission. Project Recover always reports our mission findings to DPAA, however, we do not receive information from DPAA beyond what is shared at their scheduled family updates, or information regarding a specific contracted mission. We are not at liberty to discuss specifics of any open cases in partnership with DPAA until MIAs are officially identified and families have been notified. Only then are we allowed to reach out to families to share the details of our involvement.

Once DPAA completes an identification in its laboratory, an extensive briefing is provided to the Service Casualty Office (SCO, the service of the missing person). Then, that SCO contacts the family to let them know an identification has been made.

The SCO will schedule a convenient time to come to the families’ home and brief them on the entire case. Often, the primary next of kin invites other family members to be present so all can get the same information at the same time. The mortuary officer will have studied the case extensively before he/she visits with the family in order to best respond to any questions that might be asked by the family. If the family accepts the identification, their next decision is how the remains should be buried. The mortuary officer will have several options available, including burial in a hometown cemetery, in a national cemetery, or burial at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

• Unaccounted for refers to – missing.
• Accounted for refers to – returned alive or their remains are recovered and identified.
• Repatriated refers to – the act of returning the remains of an MIA back to the United States.

We do. We have found ships, enemy craft, ancient artifacts, and lost lobster traps, to name a few.

Additionally, there are things we’ve found that we have been unable to identify. If you are a historic warplane aficionado, check out our mystery objects section in our legacy website.