DoD and DEA Team Up on Personnel Recovery
April 23, 2007

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced April 20 that Ambassador Charles A. Ray, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW/missing personnel affairs, and Michael A. Braun, the assistant administrator, chief of operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration, signed a memorandum of agreement concerning mutual support in personnel recovery.

This is the first such MOA on personnel recovery signed by the DoD and the DEA. Similar agreements are being coordinated with other organizations within the U.S. government.

This memorandum is implemented to protect the lives and well-being of employees from both agencies who participate in U.S.-sponsored activities or missions outside the country. Through this partnership, personnel recovery policy, planning, training, operations, and research and development will be coordinated to mutually support both agencies.

For example, DEA has patterned the escape and evasion training given to its agents after similar training for DoD personnel who may go into harm’s way. Additionally, this agreement sets guidelines for the common development of command and control procedures where DEA agents and DoD personnel may find themselves operating in the same region. As a result, research and development of personnel recovery-associated equipment may now be shared between DoD and DEA where common interests dictate.

Partnership between the DoD and DEA demonstrates the U.S. government’s efforts to expand personnel recovery capabilities through interagency cooperation.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s personnel recovery mission, visit the DPMO Web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169. For information on the DEA, visit http://www.dea.gov or call (202) 307-7977.