Marine Corps commanders must report a missing Marine to law enforcement within three hours and notify the local chaplain of the service member’s absence, according to a directive authorized on Friday, April 10, 2026. (Manuel Serrano/U.S. Marine Corps)
The Marine Corps wants its leaders to act more quickly when a service member does not report for duty and cannot be found, according to an interim service directive published Friday.
Commanders must report a missing Marine to law enforcement within three hours and notify the local chaplain of the service member’s absence, according to the directive authorized by Lt. Gen. William Bowers, deputy commandant for manpower and reserve affairs.
“Response actions will consider safety risk, mental health risk, self-harm risk and personal-circumstance factors,” the directive states.
The Marine Corps, until now, had not issued formal guidance for locating missing service members despite a 2022 recommendation by the Government Accountability Office that it do so, the agency reported in February.
The Marine Corps was expected to issue an interim directive in March addressing the GAO recommendations, with full implementation by January 2028, the report stated, citing service officials.
According to the directive, Phase I is to be initiated within three hours of discovery of absence. Commanders will initiate actions ranging from contacting the Marine using available methods, as well as local police, hospitals or clinics if a service member has sought assistance.
No later than 24 hours after a Marine is discovered missing, commanders will appoint a preliminary inquiry officer to collect available facts related to the absence.
After 48 hours, commanders should consider the absence to be involuntary “unless a preponderance of available evidence indicates voluntary absence,” according to the service directive.
The interim guidance went into effect immediately and will remain in effect until a permanent service policy is published.
The Marine guidance aligns with Army policy, which was announced in October.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll’s directive came after the service had for years faced criticism that it acted slowly to find missing soldiers. It updated the missing soldier processes that were implemented after high-profile investigations into the disappearance and slaying of 20-year-old Spc. Vanessa Guillen at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2020. The Army launched an internal command investigation into Guillen’s death and a separate probe into Fort Hood’s command climate and culture after her death conducted by a panel of outside experts dubbed The Fort Hood Independent Review Committee.
After those investigations, the Army added the “absent-unknown” status to allow commanders to assess the situation without immediately labeling soldiers AWOL, which carries a negative connotation and implies they are intentionally missing, Army leaders said at the time.
The GAO made 12 recommendations, including that the services also better address the role of mental health in unexpected absences and potential safety issues that could arise during the response process.
The watchdog agency also wants the Defense Department to issue a policy requiring guidance that commanders presume a service member’s absence indicates they may be in danger and that they consider absences most likely involuntary after a specific time period unless available information indicates otherwise.
The Defense Department concurred with the recommendations.
