UW MIA Recovery and Identification Project

A reminder that our archaeology workshop is happening June 15th and 16th!

Check out the flyer for more information and on how to sign up!

On this Memorial Day, take a moment to remember and honor those U.S. service members who have died while serving.

This day also serves as an opportunity to recognize the importance of continuing the work to recover and identify those still missing because every service member deserves to be remembered and brought back home to family and friends.

This past week, a few of our students had to opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. They scanned documents from the National Archives in College Park, MD, which will be helpful for future casework. They also enjoyed a night sightseeing around D.C., visiting all the different monuments.

UW MIA Project Archaeologists Eric Nordstrom (left) and Dan Joyce (right) gave a poster presentation on our work in Papua New Guinea at the 91st meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) last week. Eric is completing his Master’s Degree in Anthropology at Mississippi State and has been a team member since 2025. Dan joined the team in 2024 and is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at UW-Milwaukee and Curator Emeritus at the Kenosha Public Museum.

On Wednesday, our students had a chance to showcase their semester long commitment by presenting their research and progress on their cases to a small group of supporters. It was an impressive display of knowledge, skills, and creativity!

Thank you so much for your hard work and dedication!

The Wisconsin MIA Foundation is hosting a special fundraiser at Smoke on the Water, featuring music from singer-songwriter Taylor Davis. Enjoy great food, connect with your community, and help bring our nation’s missing heroes home.

We hope to see you there!

The UW MIA Project is hosting its first hands-on archaeology workshop this summer. Join us to learn how we do our recovery missions to locate and help repatriate the remains of American MIA.

Check out the attached flyer for more information!

The MIA Project had the honor of hosting Scott Rubitsky, a former UW MIA Board Member, to lead a training session on reading grid coordinates.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, Scott!

This past Friday, some of our undergraduate students had the opportunity to present their research within the UW MIA Project at the Undergraduate Research Symposium.

Maddee, Miya, Thomas, and Trinity presented "An Interdisciplinary Approach to Historical Missing in Action Investigations." They are being considered for an award. Also, Haley and Jack presented "A Geospatial Approach to X-File Identification for MIA Servicemembers."

Thank you so much for sharing your research!

This past weekend, the UW MIA Project had the opportunity to host visitors during the 2026 Science Exploration Weekend. Families were able to learn more about the project, conduct mini excavations, and learn about the process of identifying skeletal remains.