POW/MIA Databases & Documents
In December 1991, Congress enacted
Public Law 102-190, commonly referred to as the McCain Bill. The
statute requires the Secretary of Defense to make available to
the public--in a "library like setting"--all information
relating to the treatment, location, and/or condition (T-L-C) of
United States personnel who are unaccounted-for from the Vietnam
War. The facility chosen to receive this information was the Library
of Congress (LoC). The Federal Research Division (FRD) created
the PWMIA Database, the online index to those documents. The microfilmed
documents themselves are available at the Library of Congress or
borrowed through local libraries.
The mission of the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)
is to exercise policy, control, and oversight within DoD for the
entire process for investigation and recovery related to missing
persons; coordinate for DoD with other departments and agencies
of the United States on all matters concerning missing persons;
and establish procedures to be followed by DoD boards of inquiry.
DPMO sends redacted documents to FRD for indexing and microfilming.
In March 1992, the U.S. – Russia Joint Commission on POWs
and MIAs (USRJC) was established by direction of the Presidents
of the United States and the Russian Federation to serve as a forum
through which both nations seek to determine the fate of their
missing servicemen. DPMO provides direct analytical, investigative,
and administrative support to the USJRC through the Joint Commission
Support Directorate. The Commission’s objectives are to determine
whether American servicemen are being held against their will on
the territory of the former Soviet Union and, if so, to secure
their immediate release and repatriation; to locate and return
to the United States the remains of any deceased American servicemen
interred in the former Soviet Union; and to ascertain the facts
regarding American servicemen who were not repatriated and whose
fate remains unresolved.
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