Updated at 1:54 p.m., Thursday, June 14, 2007
POW/MIA Accounting Command gets new commander
Associated Press
The military said today it has appointed Rear Adm. Donna Crisp as the new commander for the Hawai'i-based organization responsible for locating and identifying thousands of U.S. servicemen still missing from past conflicts.Crisp is currently the director for manpower and personnel at the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon. She has served in Hawai'i before as the U.S. Pacific Fleet's personnel assignment and distribution officer at Pearl Harbor.
The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, run out of Camp H.M. Smith and Hickam Air Force Base, identifies about six servicemen from past wars each month, usually using advanced forensic science.
It estimates there are about 88,000 servicemen still missing from World War II onward. Of those, a little over a third are believed unrecoverable because they were lost at sea or are entombed in sunken vessels.
It maintains three overseas detachments in Thailand, Vietnam and Laos to look for Vietnam War-era remains.
The command's historians and analysts gather letters, maps, dental records and other information that would help them identify the missing.
The command actively works on about 1,000 cases at a time. Its lab is the largest forensic anthropology laboratory in the world.
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On the Web:
Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command: www.jpac.pacom.mil/
