"I’m a Veteran. Can I drive a truck? Watch the gate? I can clean gear. I can make a mean rice dish. I can stand at a gate and say STOP. But he said, ‘No, you can’t. You have to be on active duty.’ And it just floored me.”
Talking to the Foreign Area Officer assigned to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, DPAA, in Thailand where he was living, retired Army Colonel PJ Dermer couldn’t believe that there wasn’t a way for him to work to get every service member home. JPAC is responsible for excavating and repatriating the remains of deceased service members. Most of their work focuses on conflicts from Vietnam and earlier. Dermer wanted to support their mission but found that there weren’t roles available outside of those assigned to the command while serving on active duty.
So, Dermer made his own way and invited others along with him.
Keeping the POW/MIA legacy alive
When retiring from the Army, Dermer reflected on the climate around POW and MIA servicemembers that bookended his career.
“I was part of one of the first all-volunteer cohorts that the Nixon administration started at the end of the Vietnam war. Part of those stories at the time were those that weren’t coming home. That was my initial reception to the military. I retired out of Iraq and came to realize that at the end of these conflicts, we didn’t leave very many people behind. Seeing the black POW/MIA flag doesn’t resonate and the younger generation didn’t know that, didn’t see that. I’m right in between.”
Even though he couldn’t join up with DPAA, Dermer was determined to see this interest through. Following his curiosity and conviction, he ended up on the remote Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands on a military history tour. During World War II, Tarawa was the site of a nasty battle between American and Japanese forces. Both sides suffered massive casualties and it was these remains that Dermer saw as a young archaeologist worked to recover them.
“I was intrigued and asked, how does one get involved in this business? She said, ‘You can volunteer with us!’”
That was just what Dermer wanted to hear. He rolled up his sleeves and started excavating.
TerraSearch
After four years of research and excavation alongside academics and professional archaeologists, Dermer decided to start something of his own. He founded TerraSearch in 2020 with a mission of “Veterans leading the effort to recover their own.”
TerraSearch works in partnership with the Department of Defense for specific missions. Their work takes them from Southeast Asia and the Pacific to Italy and other parts of Europe. Recent missions have focused on Military Aircrew Recovery efforts. The team looks for wreckage or other pieces of an airplane that can point them to a specific location and area.
“We are forensic evidence collectors,” said Dermer. “Each mission takes medical personnel. We also like to have Unexploded Ordnance expertise on some missions. And labor to do the screening. Most of what we do is shaking screens back and forth. The dirt falls through and hopefully what’s left in the screen is evidence that provides insight that something is there.”
Professional archaeologists lead the field research and excavation, providing training as well as expertise. Current missions are contracted through the DoD but TerraSearch plans to start missions under their own banner as early as 2023. Dermer is also starting a nonprofit segment called TerraSearch Promise and increasing outreach to get the word out to more people who, like him, want to bring Veterans home.
Dermer hopes to get more Veterans and retirees like himself joining on missions. Most missions are between four and six weeks long, with opportunities for evidence collection as well as camaraderie.
“What we want is to bring the organizational acumen, but we don’t want to have the overbearing that can come with the military. We’re out there all day long working hard and there’s nothing wrong with having fun while we’re out there, enjoying the time. We hope to reach all levels.”
After a long day in the field, the mission team learns more about the area, its history, its cuisine, and its people. At the end of the day, it’s about bringing people home.
“I just want to be out there,” said Dermer, thinking of the POW and MIA servicemembers whose remains have yet to be recovered. “As long as he knows that we’re out there, that’s what counts to me.”
