MARIETTA, Ga. — Fallen servicemembers are finally coming home this Memorial Day to rest after years of uncertainty - and partly, it's thanks to an elite agency working to bring these heroes to their final resting place.
The headstones all look the same at Marietta National Cemetery. For retired Mjr. General Kelly McKeague, each one tells the story of a mark left on the world.
"Most of these service members are not part of a documentary; they're not part of a history book," McKeague explained. "Their acts of valor are lost to time and space."
However, their memory is not lost to the people who loved them.
"This is really about generational grieving; these families carry a void in both heart and mind," he said.
A void the Defense Prisoner of War and Missing in Action Accounting Agency works to fill. The agency was created to bring every service member lost in the line of duty home.
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, there are 81,000 Americans still missing in action from World War II to the present. It's a massive number that, for the families of the missing, comes down to just one.
"What does it mean to the team when they're able to bring someone home? It is euphoric," McKeague described.
The agency scours past battle sites with teams of historians and archeologists to find human remains and stops at nothing to identify them.
"They could be on the side of a mountain, underwater mission, deep jungle, extreme temperatures, excruciating conditions," he rattled off.
Teams of 15 people work back through four generations to identify missing service members through DNA.
That's how the agency identified a Cobb County airman.
"Lt. William Cox was a 23-year-old pilot from right here. Lost in Papa New Guinea in 1943," he said.
Cox is one of the thousands the agency has worked to bring home and bury with honors for his service,
"To now have that name, William Cox, home in this cemetery, for all Georgians, all Americans - it's the fulfillment of that obligation," he said.
This year alone, the agency brought home and identified 57 servicemembers missing from WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
Scroll through the interactive graphic to see the live count. The story continues below.
The agency has permission to work in every country in the world with the exception of North Korea. McKeague said the agency travels the world to bring servicemembers home.
"There is something about home that strikes the core of any human being," he said.
A promise was made to the military members who have fallen and those who serve today. It's a promise McKeague and his take to heart.
"If they know, deep in their hearts, that their nation, the United States of America, is doing everything humanly possible to bring back and find a lost service member from 80 years ago, you can imagine the confidence that they have that if they go missing today, they will be found," he said.
It's without a doubt their mark will be made and their efforts counted.
The agency currently has 220 people deployed across 10 countries to bring missing service members home. They are still searching for 1,257 people missing from Georgia this Memorial Day.
Scroll through the interactive map below to see how many servicemembers are missing in your area. The story continues below.