POW’s/MIA’s
The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (formally CIL, HI until 2003 - Central Identification Labratory, Hawaii) merged with the Joint Task Force, Full Accounting Commision. It became the largest forensic anthropology lab in the world.
Their mission of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, JPac, is to locate Americans held as POW's, and to recover those who have died in past conflicts.
JPAC was created in 2003 by merging CIL HI, the U.S. Army Central Identification Labratory Hawaii, and JTF-FA, the Joint Task Force - Full Accounting.
J-Pac's day-to-day focus is on the investigation of leads and the recovery and identification of any remains.
On average, J-PAC identifies six sets of human remains each month. The process is complicated, requiring substantial forensic ex pertise and multiple levels of review.
Some of the things done is analyzing the dossiers of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines for when positive ID's have tentatively been established, and, along with all this comes the jargon of acronyms such as:
KIA/BNR: killed in action - body not recovered
DADS/CAP: dawn and dusk - combat air patrol
AACP: advance airborne command post
TRF: tuned radio frequency or trident refit facility
J-PAC engages in continual negotiations with governments worldwide. They work closely with various U.S. agencies to pursue all leads that could bring missing Americans home.
Every year, J-PAC recovery teams travel by boat, train, helicopter, plane and even horseback to recover bodies of troops missing from World War Two, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War, and all over Southeast Asia. They make their way through jungles, rapell cliffs, scuba dive into trenches and climb up mountains, carrying their weight in survival and excuvation equipment.
When you put this altogether with maps, photography, correspondence, unit (military) histories, medical and personal records, it makes each case painfully real.
J-PAC was first headquartered at Hickman Air Force Base during the 1990's. The staff included a handful of anthropologists. Today, there are almost six dozen.
When the scope of operations expanded (2008), CIL opened the Forensic Science Academy, an advanced forensic anthropology program taught under the DOD (Depoartment of Defense). In 2009, a U.S. Navy Hydrographic survey vessel, th USNS Bruce C. Heezen, conducted underwater investigation operations in Vietnam's territorial waters (which was a historic first), marking a strengthening of cooperation between J-Pac, and the then Vietnamese governmant.
On January 29, 20190, U.S. Navy rear-Admiral, Donna L. Crisp, relinquished command of J-PAC to Army Major-General, Stephen Tom. As of January 10, 2017:
The U.S. listed about 2,500 Americans as prisoners of war or missing in action but only 1,200 Americans were reported killed in action and bodies not recovered. Many of these were Airmen who were shot down over North Vietnam or Laos.
Today, more than 72,000 Americans remain unaccounted for from WWII.
More than 7,800 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War.
Yet the United States Government has found no evidence of any POW/MIA in captivity, which after these years would probably be true.
Thus far, recovery teams have been deployed to sixteen countries and one-hundred and thirty-nine missions between 2009-2017. During those years, J-PAC scientists have recovered, identified one-eleven men and women.
When you enter J-PAC's lobby headquarters, you will see a commemorative board engraved with words similar to those found on POW/MIA flags.
"Not To Be Forgotten."
You will also see tiny brass plaques which bear the names of all those identified since 1973. There are many plaques.
J-PAC's Motto: "Until They Come Home"
Every meeting and event, J-PAC closes by repeating these words aloud:
"Until They Come Home"
For specific information on a missing American soldier, call or write the following:
Dept of the Army Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps
U.S. Army Human Resources Command Manpower & Reserve Affairs (MRA)
ATTN: AHRC-PD C-R Personal & Family Readiness Div.
200 Stoval Street 3280 Russell Road
Alexandria, VA 22332-0482 Quantico, VAS 22134-5103
800-832-2490 800-847-1597
Dept of the Navy Dept. of the Air Force
Casualty Assistance Div. HQ Air Force/Mortuary Affairs
OpNAVN135C 116 Purple Heart Dr.
POW/MIA Branch Dover Air Force Base, DE 19902
Millington, TN 38055-6210 800-531-5803
800-443-9298
There is a special reason for all this today.
A Vietnam Veteran was returned home after fifty years.
The remains of an Air Force officer lost for almost 50 years, after he was shot down over Southeast Asia has finally come home last Thursday (3/29) to North Carolina, where he was greeted by his three children and a mile-long procession of roaring, flag-fluttering motorcycles.
Col. Edgar F. Davis was the navigator aboard a RF-4C Phantom fighter-bomber aircraft shot down during a night photo-reconnaissance mission over Laos in September 1968. His remains were identified in late December.
An Air Force color guard carried his flag-draped coffin from an American Airlines flight arriving at Raleigh-Durham International Airport from Dallas to a waiting hearse.
About 30 members of his extended family were on hand including his daughter and two sons, both retired Air Force officers, said Robert Kerns, spokesman at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. Davis's children and other family members declined to talk to a reporter until his burial Friday in his native Goldsboro, home of the Air Force base.
The airport ceremony offered proof that the open wounds of military families can close, even decades later, thanks to the continuing work of U.S. teams committed to finding and identifying troops long missing in action.
Davis was 32 when his jet was shot down over Laos, which borders Vietnam to the west and was a secret front in the war in an attempt to destroy communist supply lines in the region. The pilot of Davis's plane ejected and was rescued. Searchers failed to locate Davis or the aircraft wreckage. He was later declared dead, according to the Defense Department's POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
MIA investigators found a villager in 2015 who reported the burial location of a U.S. service member. U.S. military scientists and medical examiners used new kinds of DNA analysis to match Davis's remains to his family, the accounting agency said.
Since Davis's remains were identified at the end of last year, more than three dozen other service members dating back to World War II have been identified.
They included 20 sailors from the USS Oklahoma, which capsized with the loss of 429 people during the Japanese attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency two years ago dug up 388 sets of remains from a Hawaii cemetery after determining that advances in forensic science and genealogical help from families could make identifications possible.
So I say to those that still have a father, a brother, sister or mother missing, never give up hope.
They may still be Missing In Action, but they are still In Your Heart.