The origins of today's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command date to the Vietnam War and two Army mortuaries — one on the eastern coast in the city of Danang, the second on Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base just outside Saigon. When the war ended, these mortuaries closed and their staff and equipment were consolidated and moved to Thailand.

Developments over the next 30 years led to the creation of today's command.

Jan. 23, 1973: U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory was established at Camp Samae San, Thailand. Its mission was to search for, recover and identify servicemen lost as a result of the Vietnam War.

1976: CILTHAI was inactivated and moved from Thailand to Hawai'i. The laboratory was redesignated the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii.

August 1985: USACILHI was established as an operational element of the U.S. Army Military Personnel Center. Its mission: to search for, recover and identify the remains of missing servicemen lost as a result of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and other conflicts and contingencies. CILHI was located on Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu.

Jan 20, 1992: The Joint Casualty Resolution Center replaced the Joint Personnel Recovery Center that had operated under Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, during the war. In 19 years, the JCRC resolved 316 of the 2,267 cases of unaccounted-for Americans lost in Southeast Asia. Jan. 23, 1992: The U.S. Defense Department created Joint Task ForceiFull Accounting to achieve the fullest possible accounting of Americans missing as a result of the war in Southeast Asia.

Oct. 1, 2003: The Joint POW/ MIA Accounting Command was activated as a merger of the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory and Joint Task Force—Full Accounting.

Sources: U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps Web site, Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command Web site, Joint Task Force—Full Accounting Web site.