The Missing Man: Americans Missing in Iraq

LAST UPDATED: January 1, 2016

It's rather astonishing that at least 20 Americans are still missing in Iraq and yet, we seldom hear about the missing in the major news media.

Additions/corrections are welcome, please email me at susie.dow at gmail.com

Below is a chart showing the name, incident date, and status of those Americans known to be missing and/or held hostage in Iraq in table format. The chart shows 51 Americans: an estimated 20 Americans are still believed missing of whom the names of 9 are unknown. An additional 2 American's names are known but the date of incident is not.

Text of available SIGACT reports are posted at SIGACT Reports of Americans Missing in Iraq.

Americans Missing in Iraq - as of January 1, 2016

Names missing from the chart below: Haqi al-Shemary and Hussain al-Zurufi.

	Date	Name - incident report	Status
1	Oct 9, 2003	Kirk von Ackermann	missing	1
2	Apr 5, 2004	unknown female #1*	missing	2
3	Apr 8, 2004	Orly Halperin	released
4	Apr 9, 2004	Thomas Hamill	escaped
5	Apr 9, 2004	Nicholas Evan Berg	deceased
6	Apr 9, 2004	William Bradley	deceased
7	Apr 9, 2004	Pfc Keith Matthew Maupin	deceased
8	Apr 9, 2004	Timothy E Bell	missing	3
9	May 3, 2004	Aban Elias	missing	4
10	Aug 13, 2004	Micah Garen	released
11	Sept 16, 2004	Jack Henlsey	deceased
12	Sept 16, 2004	Olin Eugene Armstrong Jr	deceased
13	Oct 10, 2004	Paul Taggart	released
14	Nov 1, 2004	Roy Hallums	released
15	Nov 2, 2004	Dean Sadek	missing	5
16	Nov 6, 2004	Bob Hamza (Hamze, Hamzy)	missing	6
17	Apr 11, 2005	Jeffrey Ake	missing	7
18	May 17, 2005	Neenus Y. Khoshaba	missing	8
19	Aug 2, 2005	Steven Charles Vincent	deceased
20	Sept 27, 2005	Abbas Kareem Naama (Tim)	missing	9
21	Nov 25, 2005	Ronald Alan Schulz	deceased
22	Nov 26, 2005	Thomas William Fox	deceased
23	Dec 2, 2005	unknown #2	missing	10
24	Jan 7, 2006	Jill Carroll	released
25	Jun 16, 2006	Pfc Kristian Menchaca	deceased
26	Jun 16, 2006	Pfc Thomas Tucker	deceased
27	Oct 23, 2006	Sgt Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie	deceased
28	Nov 16, 2006	Jonathon Michael Cote	deceased
29	Nov 16, 2006	Paul Christopher Johnson-Reuben	deceased
30	Nov 16, 2006	Joshua Mark Munns	deceased
31	Nov 16, 2006	John Roy Young	deceased
32	Nov 27, 2006	Maj Troy Lee Gilbert (deceased)	missing	11
33	Jan 5, 2007	Ronald J Withrow	deceased
34	Jan 20, 2007	Spc Jonathan B. Chism	deceased
35	Jan 20, 2007	Pfc Shawn Falter	deceased
36	Jan 20, 2007	Cpt Brian Scott Freeman	deceased
37	Jan 20, 2007	1Lt Jacob Fritz	deceased
38	Jan 27, 2007	unknown #3	missing	12
39	Jan 27, 2007	unknown #4	missing	13
40	Feb 1, 2007	unknown Iraqi-American #5	missing	14
41	Mar 3, 2007	Adnan Al Hilawi	missing	15
42	Apr 25, 2007	unknown #6	missing	16
43	May 12, 2007	Sgt Alex Ramon Jimenez	deceased
44	May 12, 2007	Pfc Byron W Fouty	deceased
45	May 25, 2007	unknown #7	missing	17
46	Aug 17, 2007	unknown #8	missing	18
47	summer 2008	unknown #9	missing	19
48	May 21, 2009	Jim Kitterman	deceased
49	Oct 26, 2009	Kathryn Cory	missing	20
50	Jan 23, 2010	Issa T Salomi	released
51	June 18, 2011	Rand Michael Hultz	released

*based on WikiLeaks SIGACT report - needs verification. Worth noting, a British man, Gary Teeley, was abducted on April 5, 2004 in Nasiriyah and then released less than one week later on April 11, 2004.

Not included in the chart (at this time) are the troops taken POW (status: missing) during the invasion of March 2003. All were Returned to Military Control:

Spc. Edgar Hernandez

Spc. Joseph Hudson

Spc. Shoshana Johnson

Pfc. Patrick Miller

Sgt. James Riley

Pfc. Jessica Lynch

Chief warrant officer David Williams

Chief warrant officer Ronald Young Jr.

In 2012, an Army Times article stated that 58 Americans and 'foreign persons of interest' were declared missing or captured during the War. No further details were available.

US Navy pilot Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, shot down during Gulf War I, is also not included. Speicher's remains were recovered in August of 2009.

US Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, accused by the US military of having deserted in Iraq on June 19, 2004, is also not included. Hassoun is believed to be hiding in Lebanon.

REVISIONS

January 1, 2016 - Added the troops captured and executed as a result of the January 20, 2007 attack on the Karbala Provincial Headquarters.

December 21, 2013 - revised date of the disappearance of Bob Hamzy to November 6, 2004 based on information provided by a family member who wishes to remain anonymous. Hamza was last seen in Tikrit shortly after leaving FOB Danger.

June 23, 2013 - correction, added Neenus Y. Khoshaba, missing since May 17, 2005, his name was accidentally omitted during a previous update.

January 4, 2013 - added Kathryn Cory who was last heard from on October 26, 2009. Cory founded a small NGO that worked in Iraq with women and dairies. The only public information about Cory's disappearance comes from a single source, a close friend of Cory's. Status is unknown.

May 20, 2012 - added freelance journalist, Orly Halperin, kidnapped on April 8, 2004. Halperin was released the following day. (see: The Iraq Hostage Crisis: Abductions in Iraq, April-August 2004 PDF by Thomas Hegghammer)

April 11, 2012 - added Bob Hamza who disappeared near Tikrit on or near November 17-19, 2004

April 4, 2012 - corrections, addition of Haqi al-Shemary whose name appeared in a list of missing Americans that accompanied an article at Army Times

March 18, 2012 - addition of Rand Michael Hultz - released on March 17, 2012

February 26, 2012 - remains of Staff Sgt. Ahmed al-Taie recovered

January 21, 2012 - minor corrections in formatting

December 23, 2011 - Added Adnan al-Hilawi to table, kidnapped on March 3, 2007. His name, along with von Ackermann, Bell, and Altaie, is posted on the DPMO website at the Iraq Theater and Other Conflicts page. The SIG-ACT report for the abduction of an 'American Iraqi' - now known to have been Adnan al-Hilawi - was included in a cache of information posted by WikiLeaks. See SIGACT Reports of Americans Missing in Iraq.

August 13, 2011 - Added Neenus Y. Khoshaba of Skokie, Illinois to table, kidnapped on May 17, 2005.

August 8, 2011 - two additional names of the missing revealed and an alternative spelling for Bob Hamza but incident dates remain unknown: Neenus Khoshaba, Hussain al-Zurufi, Bob Hamze. See Missing Men

January 23, 2011 - in all likelihood, the name 'Bob Hamza' should be included in the chart but the date of his abduction remains unknown. See Bob Hamza - missing

December 19, 2010 - corrected date of the abduction of Tom Fox to November 26, 2005

October 23, 2010 - (ongoing) adding links to the initial incident reports as I find them at WikiLeaks Iraq War Logs

October 14, 2010 - addition of the name of Abbas Kareem Naama (Tim Naama) who was kidnapped on the morning of September 27, 2005 in Baghdad, Iraq.

August 9, 2010 - based on National Counterterrorism Center data and statistics included in the annual Country Reports on Terrorism from the US Department of State

About the Data

Links to the initial incident reports have been culled from the WikiLeaks Iraq War Logs. Incident reports should more properly be referred to as 'SIGACT,' short for 'Significant Activity' or 'Significant Action.'

the data is based on news reports which often contradict each other
an article from April 2010 (US Operation aims to find missing) cites 11 missing Americans
a February 2010 article cites 17 missing (They search if someone's missing in Iraq) which conflicts with the current count of 18. Think positive, let's assume someone was released.
an article from October 2008 cites a total of 39 kidnapped Americans of which 22 are known to have been executed (Iraq calmer but copycat kidnappings spread). The chart above was started with 39 kidnapped Americans as a base line.
the data represents the minimum number of missing Americans. Companies and/or families may deliberately choose not report a hostage or kidnap victim to US government agencies. I was told by one representative of the Department of Labor that they were aware of unreported contractors missing in Iraq.
not all names of those missing - both past and present - are known and/or publicized for a number of reasons
Technically, the status of 'released' should more properly be referred to as 'Returned to Military Control' (RMC)