A new U.S. Army directive orders commanders to act within hours — not days — when a soldier goes missing, giving them three hours to classify a service member as “absent-unknown” and eight hours to notify the soldier’s family once the absence is discovered.

The change, issued by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll last week, compresses what sometimes can be a slow, inconsistent process for tracking soldiers with unknown whereabouts and involves law enforcement sooner.

Commanders now have 48 hours to determine if a soldier’s disappearance is voluntary or the result of something more serious or sinister. During that window, Army leaders are required to alert local Army law enforcement, enter the soldier’s name into the National Crime Information Center database and issue a “be on the lookout” no

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