As Trump Declares Missing in Action Recognition Day, How Many Service Members Are Missing?

At a Connecticut church in January, Kathy Shemeley led a bell-ringing ceremony, as she has done every year since the 1980s. She and the group read off the names of United States military service members from Connecticut who they believe remain prisoners of war in Vietnam and Korea. 

"Back in the '80s and early '90s we had a very strong base," says Shemeley, a retired elementary school teacher whose husband is a Vietnam War veteran and whose group is called the Connecticut Forget-Me-Nots. National interest in recovering prisoners of war has waned since then, she says, but she has continued her efforts. 

President Donald Trump has named Friday National POW/MIA Recognition Day, following a tradition from previous administrations. More than 80,000 U.S. military members remain missing in action, according to the Department of Defense's POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), which formed in 2015 following the merger of previous departmental efforts to do such accounting.