# Accounting for POWs, MIAs a Year-round DOD Mission

/ Published Sept. 16, 2011

WASHINGTON (September 15, 2011) —   As Americans pause tomorrow to observe POW/MIA  Recognition Day, teams of military and civilian experts will be  excavating sites in Europe and the South Pacific looking for remains to  help identify service members still missing from past wars.

Teams from Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, based at Joint Base  Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, will be on the job, working to provide  the fullest possible accounting of America’s missing, and living up to  their command’s motto, “Until they are home.”

Additional teams  are preparing for similar missions over the next couple of months to  South Korea, Laos, China, Vietnam and Germany, said Army Maj. Ramon  Osorio, a JPAC spokesman.

POW/MIA Recognition Day honors the  sacrifices America’s missing service members and their families have  made for their country, Osorio said.

But as President Barack  Obama emphasized today in his POW/MIA Recognition Day proclamation, it  also provides an important reminder that the United States is committed  to bringing its fallen service members home to their families – and that  it won’t give up, no matter how long it takes, or how difficult it  might be.

“We will never give up the search for those who are  held as prisoners of war or have gone missing under our country’s flag,”  he said. “We honor their sacrifice, and we must care for their families  and pursue the fullest possible accounting for all missing members of  our armed forces.

“Together, we must serve our nation’s patriots  as well as they have served us – by supporting them when they come home,  and by carrying on the legacy of those who do not,” he continued. “This  is a promise we keep for our fallen, for our veterans past and present,  and for all those whose loved ones have not returned from the  battlefield.”

JPAC’s mission is to provide the fullest possible  accounting for about 84,000 U.S. servicemembers from the nation’s wars.  The vast majority of these – 74,184 – are from World War II, but the  lost also include 1,680 from Vietnam, 7,979 from Korea, and 127 from the  Cold War.

In addition, two U.S. soldiers from the current  operations are classified as “Missing-Captured.” Army Spec. Ahmed  Altaie, an Army Reserve soldier assigned to Provincial Reconstruction  Team Baghdad, allegedly was kidnapped in October 2006 while on his way  to visit his family in Baghdad. The Pentagon changed his status from  “Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown” to “Missing-Captured” in December  2006.

Army Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, a member of the 25th Infantry  Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, was captured in Afghanistan’s  Paktika province on June 30, 2009. His status was changed to  “Missing-Captured” on July 3, 2009 after the Taliban released video of  him that was later authenticated by U.S. officials.

Because they  are associated with ongoing operations, U.S. Central Command has lead  responsibility for these efforts, Osorio said.

But for all other  cases, JPAC is committed to the fullest possible accounting of every  missing U.S. military member. “That’s what we would love to do, and to  be able to tell every family member that we are going to find every last  person,” Osorio said.

But it’s an admittedly daunting task,  particularly in light of the many World War II MIAs who served aboard  aircraft lost at sea. “The number is staggering,’ Osorio said.

Despite the challenges, JPAC has had a solid track record of success.  Since 2003, its 400 military and civilian specialists have identified  more than 750 missing Americans. Combined with efforts of its  predecessor units dating back to the 1970s, it has identified close to  2,000 service members, Osorio reported.

Earlier this month, on  Sept. 1, the Defense Department announced that the remains of one more,  Air Force Maj. Thomas E. Reitmann who was shot down over North Vietnam  in 1965, had been identified and returned to his family for burial with  full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

JPAC is  working to build on those successes, sending teams that include forensic  anthropologists, forensic archeologists and scientific directors to  potential crash and burial sites around the world. Teams returned during  the past week from Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Europe and, possibly to  some people’s surprise, to Canada, where an underwater recovery team  investigated a World War II aircraft downing just off the coast.

Two additional missions are under way at World War II sites: one west of  Frankfurt, Germany, and another in Vanuatu in the South Pacific.

Once remains or other personal artifacts such as dogtags are  repatriated to JPAC’s headquarters in Hawaii, experts at the command’s  Central Identification Laboratory – the world’s largest forensic  anthropology lab – use the most advanced science available to match them  to a specific missing service member. Among tools used is mitochondrial  DNA, which includes unique signatures from the maternal line and helps  the JPAC staff make identifications once not considered possible.

But JPAC doesn’t work alone in fulfilling its mission. It works “all  the time, every day” with the Armed Forces DNA identification Laboratory  in Rockville, Md., which runs DNA sequences for JPAC and provides a  system of double-checks for findings, Osorio said.

In addition,  the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office in Washington  provides policy guidance and oversight for its missions. And each  service has an office that works directly with families of the missing  throughout the accounting process.

As JPAC pauses tomorrow to  host a POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony at the National Memorial  Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the “Punchbowl,” and other military  bases around the world commemorate the day, Osorio emphasized that  accounting for America’s MIAs is 365-day-a-year mission.

“The  reason we continue to do this is because it is the right thing to do,”  he said. “People understand the importance of not forgetting the  sacrifices that those who have gone before us have made...”

“For  those who decided to raise their right hand and go forth to do that, we  owe it to them and we definitely owe it to their families so they know  we are going to give our 200 percent to do what’s right and work as hard  as we can to find as many of them as we possibly can.”

This, he said, sends a powerful message to those serving in today’s conflicts.

“If we are going to ask you to go off and put yourself in harm’s way  and potentially pay the ultimate price, if tragedy were to strike,  knowing that your country has your back and will do everything it  possibly can do to ensure you end up with your family,” he said. “That  is huge. It clearly shows the men and women who are serving today at  America stands behind them, regardless of what may occur.”