Scientific Recovery Expert Speaks at Noon Rotary

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – A Scientific Recovery Expert spoke with the Zanesville Noon Rotary Club meeting Tuesday afternoon.

Scientific Recovery Expert, Heidi Miller, shared her story and experiences subcontracting with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, or DPAA. The DPAA sends teams out to different countries to recover the remains of soldiers of past conflicts. Miller is the only non military member on the team as a bioarchaeologist, and it’s her job to teach the team about human remains and how to identify them.

“I’m the only archaeologist on the team and then everybody else are military. So my job is to go out and teach them kind of how to dig. And then also guide where we’re digging, identify what we’re looking for, that kind of stuff,” she said.

Miller said she has always been interested in archaeology, but being involved with something like this has a significant affect on people’s lives.

“It’s really important to have that sense of closure. Most of the time they get reports from the military, whatever branch is it that their loved one has passed away, they’ve gone missing, and they may never hear anything again. They just don’t know, they’re left with all of these questions. So this is just a really nice way to bring closure to the families,” she said.

For more information on the DPAA and their mission, you can visit their website, www.dpaa.mil/.