POLICY REGARDING UNDERWATER REMAINS RECOVERY
OPERATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH UNACCOUNTED FOR
U.S. SERVICE PERSONNEL

     To provide United States Department of Defense (DoD) policy regarding the use of underwater recovery services in support of the U.S. Government’s (USG) efforts to achieve the fullest possible accounting of American’s who are unaccounted for as a result of service to the United States.

     The goal of the Department of Defense is to achieve the fullest possible accounting for all Americans who become missing as a result of service to the United States. Accordingly, the USG is committed to pursuing all reasonable avenues to achieve that goal, including under certain circumstances, the investigation of losses underwater.

     The Department of Defense will undertake reasonable efforts to recover personnel of lost at sea contingent upon the following criteria:

     Safety/risk management considerations. Safety is of paramount concern during every recovery operation. Due to the potential for damage, injury, or death associated with sea-based recovery operations, operational/on-scene commanders will weigh the safety risk involved and make the final decision in undertaking an underwater recovery mission.

     Availability of recovery assets. The DoN is the primary agency for providing assets in conducting diving, salvage and recovery operations. As such, the DoN, in concert with theater and fleet commanders’ operational requirements, shall evaluate requests for recovery services against asset availability. Based on operational requirements and asset availability, a determination will be made as to the feasibility of employing privately owned salvage and recovery services as an alternative recovery source.

     Technical determinants. Factors, which determine the recommendation of an underwater recovery operation, are as follows: an accurate location of the loss incident, a correlation between the loss and an unresolved case, and the ability to conduct the recovery safely.