For the families of American service members who never returned from war, the wait for answers has stretched across generations. A dedicated U.S. military operation, supported by Papua New Guinea’s leading helicopter operator Pacific Helicopters Limited, is working to change that.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) estimates that more than 83,000 service members remain unaccounted for from past conflicts, some missing since the end of World War II. Since 2015, the DoD’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has led the mission to locate, recover and identify these individuals, bringing long-awaited closure to their loved ones.
Its search spans the globe, but with some of the most intense battles fought in and around Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Solomon Islands, these remote countries have become critical recovery sites, with more than 3,200 of the missing 83,000 service members understood to be in PNG alone.
Since the end of WWII, the DoD has conducted recovery missions in PNG through various agencies, including the former Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. It has consistently relied on Pacific Helicopters Limited (PHL), PNG’s leading helicopter operator serving the oil, gas, mining, telecommunications and construction industries, for support in flying its teams and equipment to remote search areas and navigating the country’s unforgiving terrain and complex culture. This nearly 30-year partnership is a proud part of PHL’s 50-year legacy, which it celebrates this year.
A mission of precision and persistence
Each DPAA mission is a painstaking operation, requiring expert co-ordination between military personnel, forensic specialists, historians, archaeologists and aviation crews. Having led multiple DPAA missions in PNG for around seven years, U.S. Marine Corps Captain Justin Harty understands the gravity of the task intimately.
A third-generation Marine, the 34-year-old has built a career on leadership, precision and problem-solving – qualities that make him well-suited to overseeing the DPAA’s intricate recovery efforts. Uncovering the fate of missing service members is a complex and delicate process.
Each mission unfolds like an orchestrated performance, where historians, scientists, archaeologists and forensic specialists work in seamless coordination to analyse battlefield reports, examine historical aircraft crash sites and piece together evidence to identify the fallen. Local community support is central to these efforts. Papua New Guineans provide essential on-the-ground assistance and intelligence during searches, while the PNG government contributes through agencies like the National Museum & Art Gallery (NMAG), Defense Force (PNGDF), and Royal Constabulary (RPNGC).
These missions rely on a holistic partnership, bringing together the U.S. Embassy in Port Moresby, PNG authorities, local communities and private sector businesses like PHL for aerial support and others for logistics. It is a race against time. PNG’s dense tropical rainforests reclaim wreckage, the elements erode clues, and eyewitnesses grow fewer with each passing year. Yet, for the families who have spent decades in uncertainty, every mission carries the promise of long-awaited answers.
A mission in motion
Harty underwent his first mission with PHL in 2018 and from the outset he sensed they understood the true meaning of partnership. Before any fieldwork on a mission can begin, extensive planning is required including estimating blade hours, which essentially measures flight time to and from a destination.
Though Harty had yet to set foot in PNG, he drew on his Marine experience to develop a plan remotely, positioning some of his team in Kerema in accommodation closer to the recovery site. This would allow for smoother movement between bases, expediting the infrastructure setup for the recovery crew and requiring fewer blade hours compared to daily commutes from Port Moresby.
But on arrival, they found the accommodation unsuitable for safety reasons and had to relocate to Port Moresby. “We had a fixed budget for a certain amount of blade hours to establish the site,” Harty explains. “But now our blade hour estimates are entirely off, and I’m completely up against it.
“We had to completely re-adjust our plan.” Harty convened an emergency meeting with his assigned Pacific Helicopters pilot on the 15th floor of the Hilton Hotel in Port Moresby. On their way to a conference room, they grab 15 coffee cup lids, laying them out on the table and using them to map the potential sites for further investigation. In that moment, Harty’s overriding mental state is doubt. “I was thinking, I can look at the terrain – I’m a marine, I can figure this out.
“But then I’m looking at what we need to do and I’m thinking, there’s no way.” PHL’s pilot proposes an entirely new route, navigating hidden corridors between sites that Harty hadn’t even considered. He also suggests a sling-load strategy to transport the necessary equipment for setting up base camp, carefully planning the order of delivery to maximise efficiency.
“There’s something special there that speaks to Pacific’s commitment to the mission, because what you’d imagine out of a business is that they’d say, ‘we’re going to need more blade hours, so you’ll need more budget’. It’s testament to the calibre of the pilots at Pacific Helicopters – to walk me through how we can make it work within our budget. “Had Pacific not done those things, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve all that we wanted to because the money just wasn’t there.
“They genuinely care about the mission just as much as you do, which is very unusual in this day and age.”
Going above and beyond
On a mission to locate a missing American in a remote village high in the mountains of Morobe Province, Harty’s team found themselves facing unforeseen challenges. In Papua New Guinea, a weather system can change in mere minutes, transforming a safe operation into a dangerous one.
After eight hours of negotiation, the team secured the release of a shoebox containing possible evidence that could assist in identifying a missing service member. The villagers agreed to release the possible evidence, but only after obtaining approval from the provincial administrator, who was stationed at the foot of the mountain.
At this critical moment, Pacific Helicopters’ pilot alerted Harty that severe weather was closing in, and they would need to leave very soon. As the mission team made its way to the bottom of the mountain to collect the administrator, the sun briefly broke through, offering just enough time to complete the final negotiations and safely extract the possible evidence.
The next day, the pilot identified a brief safe weather window, allowing Harty to return to the village with food and supplies as a thank you to the villagers for their cooperation. Within a year, the missing American was identified, finally giving the family closure they had long waited for. “It was a perfect example of Pacific Helicopters going above the beyond to complete the mission while keeping the team safe,” says Harty. “There was discomfort, but also a sense of urgency – ‘We’re right here, let’s get this done.’”
“Pacific Helicopters as a partner offers a form of continuity that’s critical to the success of our mission, especially when new faces unfamiliar with PNG join the team,” Harty explains. “Their expertise in the country, the culture, the terrain, and the flying conditions—those are all things we rely on heavily. It’s an intangible—something you can’t list as a line item on a contract, like ‘we will provide continuity and cultural understanding’. “That’s where true partnership comes in.”
Harty describes his experience working in PNG as both the most challenging and rewarding of his career. “I’ve been fortunate enough to work all over the world, but there’s no place like PNG. It’s difficult to put into words how fulfilling and meaningful the whole experience is. “The cultural, logistical, and infrastructure challenges, the weather and the politics – anything can change on a dime. You’re also very independent out there.
“That’s why we partner with the best, like Pacific Helicopters, who we can trust to operate with the upmost integrity and share our commitment to the mission.”