The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1944-11-07
. BEHIND THE SCENES
IN WASHINGTON .

a prisoner of war he must first
be reported missing in action.
This missing in action report IS
cabled TO the Adjutant Generals
Office in Washington, which inn
mediately pulls the mans rec
ords from its files and reports
the case to the casualty branch.
The man doesn't become a
prisoner OF war until he is so
reported by the nation which
captured him, or by direct COM
munication in the form of a cap
ture card received from the
prisoner himself, addressed 70
his next of kin. Ordinarily,
however, the first word the next
Of kin will get is a telegram
from the War Department say
ing that the man is missing IN
action.
NAMES TRANSMITTED FIRST
AS soon as man is captured,
the enemy obtains from him
such information as his name,
rank, serial number, home ad-
dress and next of kin. This in
formation is sent by the enemy
authorities to the International
Red Cross. From IRC at Cen
eva, therefore, will come to the
War Department an initial cable
giving list of newly reported
prisoners by name, rank and
serial number. From this first
list the Prisoner of War Infor-
nation Bureau prepares infor-
nation for various identifying
agencies which notify the next
OF kin, giving the relative the
first news that the man pre-
vlouSly reported as missing in
action is now prisoner of war.
A copy of this notification is
then transferred from the identi-
Tying agency to the Prisoner of
War Information Bureau of the
Provost Marshal Generals Of
flee, which follows up the initial
telegraphed report with a letter
to the next of kin, explaining
how and where he may be COM
municated with.
From 80 to 80 days later there
will come a second cable from
Geneva, confirming names and
numbers and specifying the
prisoner Of war camp TO which
each man has been assigned.
A second letter now goes out
to the next of kin, relaying this
new information and enclosing
full mailing instructions and
labels for mailing out parcels
and tobacco. And in the Prisoner
of War Information Bureau the
case now becomes a record in
visible strip file as we'll as on
a machine record card so that
the bureau has instantly avail
able records on every individual.
SOME ADVICE TO
NEXT OF KIN
All correspondence with rel
atives is handled by the bureau.
AS volume is increasing, officers
request of prisoners next of kin:
Don't write letters either 10
the bureau or to the Adjutant
Generals Office when you first
get a missing in action" tele-
gram. 1t doesn't do any good.
Neither department knows any
more about any individual miss
ing in action case than you do.
The second request is, don't
write letters to any other gov
eminent agency or official.
Write only to The Prisoner of
War Information Bureau, Pro-
Nost Marshal Generals Office,
Washington Is, d. c.
Once a month the bureaus
strip file of names in microfilm-
ed and the film sent to the Of
flee Of Censorship in New York,
which clears all prisoner of war
mail.
The punch card index is made
out in duplicate. One copy stays
in Washington, the other goes to
General Eisenhower's headquar-
tiers, so that when the armies
move into Germany, U. S. forces
will know just what prisoners
have to be accounted for, and
where they are.