Project Recover Newsletter | June 2025

Dear , 

As we reach the midpoint of 2025, we are filled with gratitude for your continued support and partnership. Thanks to you, Project Recover has now helped bring home 28 missing U.S. service members, with 11 repatriations in just the past year alone.

Each mission is grounded in our unwavering commitment: to locate, recover, and repatriate Americans missing in action (MIA) and to bring answers and closure to their families.

Eighty-one years after his B-24 bomber Heaven Can Wait was lost in Papua New Guinea, 2nd Lt. Thomas V. Kelly was finally laid to rest in his hometown of Livermore, California. Surrounded by family, friends, and a grateful nation, his homecoming on Memorial Day 2025 served as a profound reminder of the enduring promise to bring all our missing service members home.

“This Memorial Day—81 years after his parents and sister received the telegram they never wanted—Tommy will finally be laid to rest in his hometown. Project Recover made that possible. As I reflect on this emotional journey, I’m also thinking of the seven crewmembers still missing—and the more than 81,000 American MIAs whose families still wait. For them, Project Recover offers hope and a path to closure."    

   - Scott Althaus, family member of 2nd Lt. Thomas V. Kelly, Jr.

Welcome home, 2nd Lt. Kelly. You are not forgotten.

We are honored to share that, through the efforts of Project Recover and in partnership with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), 2nd Lt. Milton L. Hymes, Jr., of Savannah, Georgia, and 2nd Lt. Donald W. Sheppick, of Roscoe, Pennsylvania, have been officially identified. Both men were lost in 1944 during World War II and had remained missing in action for over 80 years.

We are privileged to have played a role in these homecomings and are deeply grateful to our dedicated supporters, volunteers, and partners who made this possible.

Team Spotlight: Tom Daggett