News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci
(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: DPMO Release

Date: July 21, 1998

DPMO - SPECIAL PROJECTS AND ARCHIVAL RESEARCH

ARCHIVAL RESEARCH

Archival research plays a key role in POW/MIA accounting. It is primarily an extension of the analytical tools used by DPMO to gain information on the status of AmericaÍs missing. Information is gathered from classified and unclassified archives and is shared with DPMO analysts. If it is case- specific, the information is placed into case files of the individual servicemember and passed to the military service casualty offices from which it is passed to family members. When original documents are classified, steps are taken to declassify the material and make it available for public review.

The Special Projects/Archival Research (SP/AR) Directorate of DPMO oversees all archival research efforts for all wars in which the US has participated.

The SP/AR group closely coordinates its efforts with the other DPMO directorates -- especially the Research and Analysis (RA) and Joint Commission Support (JCSD) Directorates -- to identify archival facilities to be visited and specific types of information to be collected. Once the information is collected, it is indexed by SP/AR and turned over to the appropriate directorate or to DPMOÍs Reference and Documents Division. Ultimately, copies are made and sent to the National Archives (NARA) or Library of Congress where the material becomes part of a special collection and is accessible for public research.

As DPMO began expanding the accounting efforts for the Korean War, SP/AR was tasked with locating Korean War research materials. After the armistice in 1953, documents were retired to repositories and offices all over the world and sometimes very little information was recorded about the disposition of these records. Furthermore, since many military units were disbanded after the war, records have been difficult, if not impossible, to trace. For this reason, DPMO began to devote personnel to the mission of searching US government, foreign government, and academic and private archival facilities worldwide to find any information regarding US personnel who are unaccounted- for from the Korean War. These efforts have been rewarding. For example, a DPMO researcher recently uncovered Korean War Air Force debriefs of returned POWs at NARA II in College Park, MD. Historians and archivists have been seeking these records for nearly 40 years. In another instance, DPMO researchers found 58 boxes of previously unevaluated Korean War information stored in a UN facility in South Korea.

SP/ARÍs archival researchers have achieved similar success in Vietnam War archives as well. Although DPMO traditionally has relied upon analysts in other divisions of DPMO to conduct their own archival research, SP/AR archivists provide an added capability to our analytical teams. Analysts throughout DPMO are assigned a large number of individual cases and must spend considerable time conducting archival research related to those specific cases. Those efforts, coupled with additional work related to field investigations and analytical activities, impact on the time available for the analysts to devote to broader research projects. However, SP/ARÍs collaborative efforts with Southeast Asia and Russian analysts on Vietnam War archival research have already resulted in the discovery of Search and Rescue logs from the years 1966-67, which have been missing for decades. These logs were photocopied for DPMO use and then immediately shipped to the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA) in Hawaii for use in field investigations.

Below is a section on recent archival activities as well as a guide to libraries, archives and other facilities visited. More information will be added as it becomes available. See also the accompanying diagram showing the flow of information and documents to and through DPMO archival research.

HIGHLIGHTS OF RECENT ARCHIVAL ACTIVITIES

March 1998

In mid-March, DPMO researchers traveled to Geneva, Switzerland to assess World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War records stored at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) archives. During this review, researchers conducted an in-depth study of a portion of Korean War records to help them analyze the value of the ICRC materials. This sample of records Ümostly from the ICRC, North Korean Red Cross, and Chinese Red Cross - did hold key information. DPMO personnel discovered names of four personnel who were listed by the ICRC as POWs but who were not carried in US records as POWs. All four were considered to be unaccounted-for personnel, but two were listed in US records as Killed in Action and two were listed as Missing in Action. Changes were immediately made to the DPMO consolidated database of Personnel Missing from the Korean War (PMKOR) and appropriate documentation was forwarded to the Service casualty officers. DPMO researchers plan to undertake a full review of the ICRC records that become available in the future to determine if there is other information that may shed light on the fates of unaccounted-for Americans.

February 1998

Two DPMO researchers and an Air Force Casualty Office researcher visited the National Records Center in St. Louis in mid-February. They reviewed approximately 200 linear feet of records, including Air Force Casualty Records for 1950-52 and closed casualty files for January-December 1951. During this search, information was uncovered which confirmed that the remains of four USAF personnel listed as Killed, Body Not Recovered in the PMKOR database were, in fact, recovered. Those names have been removed from the PMKOR database and Service casualty officers have been informed. Researchers also found information in the Air Force casualty records that they used to update the DPMO Korean War aircraft loss database. DPMO personnel identified additional unit-level records and 150 linear feet of other US Air Force Korean War-era records to be searched at a later date.

January 1998:

DPMO SP/AR personnel reviewed Vietnam Era classified logbooks at NARA II. They discovered that the logbooks contained the 1966 and 1967 records of the 3rd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Group. After discussions with the JTF-FA, it appears that the logbooks are the "missing" volumes of the aircraft Search and Rescue records maintained at the JTF-FA office, which currently cover the years from 1968 through the end of the Vietnam War. DPMO archival personnel made photocopies of these logbooks (some 2,000 pages). A complete photocopied set has been sent to JTF-FA and a second set will be retained at DPMO for analytical reference and review.

A DPMO archivist visited the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis to review US Air Force operational records related to servicemen missing from the Korean War. During his search, the researcher discovered approximately 500 boxes of individual casualty information and aircraft loss data from the Headquarters of the Fifth Air Force and the Headquarters of the Far East Air Forces. Analysts will use information from these records to fill in missing details for Korean War casualty files and to cross-check the data contained in the PMKOR, a comprehensive listing of Korean War unaccounted-for servicemen.

ARCHIVAL FACILITIES VISITED

This is a list of archival facilities recently visited by DPMO SP/AR archival researchers.

Air Intelligence Agency, Kelly AFB, San Antonio, TX

Australian National War Memorial, Canberra, AUS

Center for Military History, Washington, DC

Central Identification Laboratory, Hickam AFB, HI

Central Intelligence Agency Library, McLean, VA

CINCPACFLT, Makalapa, HI

The Citadel, Charleston, SC

DePaul University, Chicago, IL

Eisenhower Library, Abilene, KS

Federal Records Center, St. Louis, MO

Hoover Institution, Palo Alto, CA

Indochina Center, Berkeley University, Berkeley, CA

International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, Switzerland

Joint Service SERE Agency, Alexandria, VA

Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, TX

MacArthur Library, Norfolk, VA

Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, AL

National Air Intelligence Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton OH

National Archives (NARA), Washington DC & College Park MD

National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, MO

National Security Agency, Ft. Meade, MD

Richard M. Nixon Library, Yorba Linda and Laguna Niguel, CA

National Records Center, St. Louis, MO

Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ

Northwestern University, Chicago, IL

Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN

Office of Naval Intelligence, Suitland, MD

Pentagon Library, Washington DC

Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

State Department Archives, Washington, DC

Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX

United Nations Command, Military Armistice Commission, Korea

University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Irvine

University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, San Diego

University of Chicago, IL

University of Hawaii, Manoa, HI

University of the Pacific, Seattle, WA

University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

University of Texas

University of Washington, Seattle, WA

US Eighth Army, Korea

US Air Forces, Korea

US Air Force Institute of Technology Library, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH

US Air Force Medic Training Center/Museum, Brooks AFB, TX

US Air Force Personnel Records Center, Randolph AFB, TX

US Air Force Training Command, Lackland AFB, TX

US Army Central Security Facility, Ft. Meade, MD

US Army Museum, Ft. Sam Houston, TX

US Army Records Storage Facility, Pusan, Korea

US Army War College/US Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, PA

USCINCPAC, Camp Smith, HI

US Forces Korea

US Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB, AL

US Marine Corps History Center, Washington, DC

US Naval Forces, Korea

US Navy Historical Center, Washington, DC

Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH

Wright State University Library, Dayton, OH