That is the motto of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command headquartered at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Aramco Brat Brad Swayne, a master sergeant in the U.S. Army, served for three years as head of JPAC’s Forensic Photography Unit. Brad both traveled the world as a member of investigative teams tasked with recovering the remains of missing service members and oversaw other teams members as they carried out similar missions. “We don’t leave a fallen American behind,” a JPAC officer once said. “Their families deserve an answer.” Over 400 personnel make up the JPAC team of specialists. Key to their operations is the Central Identification Laboratory at Hickam Field—the largest forensic skeletal laboratory in the world. It is there that extensive testing is conducted on recovered remains, seeking to learn the identity of the individual whose remains have been found. Extensive preparatory work precedes sending a JPAC investigative team into the field. Historians and other specialists collect data from a wide range of sources, including official U.S. military records, local witnesses near the possible site, members of both the US and enemy military forces at the time, newspaper articles and more. Using this data, analysts put together a case file which is continuously updated as new information is gathered. Once analysts determine that the site in question likely holds the remains of an American MIA, a field investigation team is deployed to visit the potential recovery site. Based on the information they gather, if enough evidence is found, the site will be recommended for recovery and excavation.
Recovery missions usually take between 35 and 60 days average, depending on the location, terrain and nature of the recovery. Between 10 and 14 personnel make up the typical recovery team. A military officer serves as team leader and is responsible for the safety of the personnel and for logistical details. A forensic anthropologist from CIL directs the actual evidence-gathering effort, aided by a linguist, medic, life support technician, forensic photographer, explosive ordinance disposal specialist and other personnel whose skill sets match the specific mission, such as divers and mountaineering specialists. The forensic anthropologist directs the excavation much like a detective oversees a crime scene: a site grid is established and a pedestrian survey of the surface area is conducted. Once a grid has been laid out, excavation begins. One or two Americans, assisted by local workers, begin filling buckets with debris and passing them along a “bucket line” to a screening station where anything that is not a rock or a stick will go into a separate bucket for special inspection by the forensic anthropologist and team leader later that day. Excavation sites can be as small as a grave site or as large as a football field in the case of an aircraft crash. JPAC personnel travel to remote and sometimes dangerous locations all over the world, requiring JPAC administrators to work closely with foreign governments to assure the safety of their teams. Once remains have been successfully recovered, they are flown by military aircraft to Hickam Air Force Base, where a formal arrival ceremony honors those who have paid the supreme sacrifice in service to their country. Then begins the final step in the long process as JPAC laboratory staff work to identify the remains.
Over 50 scientists make up the JPAC laboratory staff, including forensic anthropologists, forensic dentists, aircraft wreckage specialists and various support people. Remains are assigned to a forensic anthropologist who “works in the blind” without any information about where the remains were recovered or the circumstances surrounding them, thus eliminating any possible bias in their analysis. They begin by identifying the sex, age, race and stature of the individual. They look for any indications of trauma or illness that might aid in identifying the remains. An individual’s dental records are often the best way to ID the service member. Uniforms, weapons and personal effects gathered from the site provide important clues. Dog tags are key, but often they are missing, and even if they are found, a positive ID is made only when all types of evidence gathered point to the same individual. Once a positive identification has been made, any personal items recovered, such as wedding rings, photographs, letters and such are returned to the family. In approximately 70 percent of cases, the final step in the ID process is DNA analysis. For this, attention is focused on Mitochondrial DNA from the mother, which is inherited just from the mother, as opposed to nuclear DNA which comes from both parents.
JPAC’s biggest challenge in completing its work successfully is the lack of reference samples of Mitochondrial DNA from family members of those who are still unaccounted for. This is where our readers can help. If any of you know of a family member who was lost while serving in the U.S; military, no matter how long ago or in which conflict, JPAC encourages you to contact the MIA Service Casualty Office to ensure that a DNA reference sample is on file for that service member. Your action could prove to be key in bringing a lost family member home. Almost 90,000 service members remain lost. The remains of many have been recovered but not yet identified. JPAC has an open file for every known MIA in U.S. military history, dating back over a century. No file is ever closed until the lost service member has been found, positively identified and brought home to rest. Unresolved cases are kept open in the hope that new evidence will be found or new technologies will be developed that will someday make identification possible.
This is an on-going tradition with full support from the U.S. military. People around the world marvel when they learn from JPAC team members that such an effort is maintained. An officer serving in JPAC describes it best: “JPAC is here to bring our fallen servicemen home. I can’t think of a more noble mission. I can’t think of a more comforting mission to know that, if tragedy strikes and I’m lost, that I know that someone’s going to come find me and bring me home.” Or, as the head of JPAC’s CIL once said, “You know, people ask why this is important. It’s important because this country sent men in harm’s way, and made them a promise. And that the promise was that they’d be returned. And it’s not a promise made by a government. It’s a promise made by an individual. Each one of these men was somebody’s father, they were somebody’s brother, they were somebody’s husband, and all of us are those things. We’re fathers and husbands and brothers and wives and sisters. That’s who makes the promise. We make the promise to them, one father to another, one brother to another, one husband to another, and it’s a promise that we’re determined to keep.” To date, over 1,300 service members have been recovered, identified and returned to their families. The men and women of JPAC have pledged to continue their mission until everyone is accounted for”—“Until they are home.” For more information, please visit www.jpac.pacom.mil.