This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas https://dolearchives.ku.edu Since the inception of the JCRC, land search operations have thus far resulted in the recovery and positive identification of the remains of at least eight U. S. military personnel who were previously in an MIA status. Status Determinations In determining the status of servicemen lost in combat, the Secretaries of the Military Departments are governed by Title 37, United States Code, Sections 555 and 556. In making these determinations, as prescribed under public law, two possibilities exist besides the option of retaining the individual in a missing status. In those cases where information is received which conclusively establishes that the member is deceased, a report of death will be issued. A finding of death is made when circumstances are such that the missing individual can no longer reasonably be presumed to be living. The law further requires the Secretaries to carry out a full review of each missing in action case no later than one year after the individual is declared missing. Based on available information, a decision is then made to declare the individual deceased or to continue him in a missing status. Status changes have been made from missing in action or prisoner of war to killed in action throughout the recent conflict and since the Agreements were signed in Paris. It can be expected that more status changes will be made on a continuing basis in the future. In any case, even if a serviceman is declared deceased, we intend to continue searching for his remains or for additional information concerning the circumstances of his death. The Department of Defense has both a moral and a legal obligation to our missing men and their families, as well as to those who perished in this and other conflicts. We are prepared to carry out this obligation. As a result of a temporary restraining order issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on August 6, 1973, the Secretaries of the Military Departments have been constrained in the actions they may take pursuant to the existing law set forth in Title 37 of the United States Code regarding the resolution of cases involving members who were, on July 20, 1973, in Indochina in a "missing status" as that term is defined in Chapter 10 of Title 37. 4 s-con_293_024_001_A1b.pdf Page 1 of 6 This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas https://dolearchives.ku.edu The temporary restraining order restricts the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force to consideration of Status changes only in the cases of missing servicemen whose primary next of kin request the appropriate Secretary in writing not to delay such consideration. When our men held as prisoners were returned, they provided information about some of our missing servicemen. Analysis of this information permitted the resolution of some cases and assisted in our continuing efforts to determine the fate of our men for whom a satisfactory accounting has not been achieved. These efforts include negotiation, inspections, site investigation, graves registration team employment, and any other initiative available to us which shows promise of results. The accounting for these servicemen will continue to be a matter of the greatest concern to the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force. We recognize our obligation to these Americans and their families, and fulfillment of this obligation remains one of our highest priority tasks in the Department of Defense. 5 s-con_293_024_001_A1b.pdf Page 2 of 6 This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas https://dolearchives.ku.edu FACT SHEET UNITED STATES JOINT CASUALTY RESOLUTION CENTER The Joint Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC), commanded by Army Brigadier General Robert Kingston, is a joint task force established by and under the command of the Commander in Chief Pacific. The unit is under the operational control of the Commander, United States Support Activities Group (USSAG). The Joint Casualty Resolution Center operates under Joint Chiefs of Staff approved mission and joint table of distribution. The Joint Casualty Resolution Center is an outgrowth of United States Government efforts to identify, document, and maintain records of known and suspected missing in action and prisoners of war. These records were initially maintained by the Joint Personnel Recovery Center (JPRC), Saigon beginning in 1966. When the JCRC was established in Saigon on 23 January 1973, the records of the JCRC were turned over to the new organization. The mission of the JCRC is to assist in resolving the status of those U.S. personnel missing in action (MIA) and those personnel declared dead whose bodies were not recovered (BNR), through the provision of information/coordination and/or conduct of operations to locate and investigate crash and grave sites and recover and identify remains throughout Southeast Asia. In planning for our field operations, we use the following assumptions : a. All parties concerned will meet their obligations with respect to MIA's and dead assumed under the Vietnam and Lao agreements and will mutually assist in the resolution of such cases. b. Conditions for coordination with personnel in countries concerned will be provided in accordance with terms of the cease-fire agreements. c. Coordination of in-country activities in Laos and Cambodia will be accomplished through CINCPAC senior military representatives or designated American Embassy officers. d. Coordination of in-country activities within North and South Vietnam will be accomplished through negotiations within the Four-Party Joint Military Team. e. Access to all pertinent areas of Southeast Asia will be sought to allow JCRC teams to conduct casualty resolution operations. 6 s-con_293_024_001_A1b.pdf Page 3 of 6 This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas https://dolearchives.ku.edu In Saigon, an officer assigned to the Office of the Defense Attache, American Embassy, has been designated to act as a channel for direct communications between JCRC Headquarters and the U.S. Delegation to the FPJMT. The JCRC is organized under a dual deputy system: The Deputy Commander for Staff Operations is responsible for the staff planning and coordination; the Deputy Commander for the Field Operations supervises the field units. Organizationally, the JCRC staff accomplishes the normal staff functions. Additional comments need to be made on three of the staff elements. The Public Affairs Officer on the staff provides all available information on JCRC activities to the MACTHAI PAO in Bangkok. A JCRC officer is assigned to that office, where he serves as a casualty resolution point of contact and is in constant contact with the JCRC on all casualty resolution matters. The Casualty Data Division assembles, correlates, and analyzes information on personnel who are missing in the vicinity of crash and burial sites. The function of this division includes data analysis, automated data processing, photo interpretation of aerial photos of crash sites, crash/grave site identification of areas in which JCRC teams will operate, and the maintaining of casualty records or dossiers on those personnel who have been in a missing in action status at one time or another during the conflict. The Operations Division directs activities in the areas of operations, plans and communications. It also has a Public Communications Branch which provides staff assistance in the development of public information programs in an effort to obtain additional information concerning crash and burial sites. The major subordinate elements involved in field operations are two control teams, one oriented toward operations in Vietnam and one toward Laos and Cambodia. These control teams provide command and control of casualty resolution field teams, each comprised of five men, and will have operational command of all special augmentation personnel needed to accomplish the mission. Each control team has the capability of launching, supporting, and extracting the field teams and provides for requisite air, communications, and logistics support. The field teams which will search for crash or grave sites consist of an officer, a radio operator, a medic, an interviewer, and a general duty assistant to the officer in charge, who are all Special Forces Troops. 7 s-con_293_024_001_A1b.pdf Page 4 of 6 This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas https://dolearchives.ku.edu Special Forces personnel will be used because they are trained to operate harmoniously with indigenous peoples, are familiar with jungle terrain and survival techniques, and are available for this humanitarian effort with minimum additional training. The field teams will be augmented, as required, by Air Force air crash investigators, ordnance demolition technicians provided to disarm unexpended ordnance and booby traps near crash sites, and by indigenous personnel who will assist in the search and on-site operations. The JCRC has 11 organic field teams, with an augmentation capability of 10 more teams from the 1st Special Forces Group on Okinawa and 16 teams from U.S. Special Forces assets in Thailand. The Central Identification Laboratory, Thailand (CIL), located at Samae San, between U-tapao and Sattahip in Southeastern Thailand, about 80 miles from Bangkok, is under the operational command of the Joint Casualty Resolution Center. The CIL is organized into an identification laboratory and eight five-man recovery teams which will accompany the casualty resolution field teams. The field teams will be deployed in various ways. They can be utilized as separate entities in the search operations for selected locations, or they can be deployed in a cluster arrangement. This concept visualizes a number of concurrent and consecutive crash/grave site operations located in one general area. This area would be in the vicinity of a forward operating base which ideally would be adjacent to an air strip that could accommodate arrival, resupply, and departure aircraft. The cluster concept provides a single area to concentrate on, allows for maximum advantage to be taken of predicted climatic and weather cycles, maximizes the use of helicopters by short but frequent missions to support several teams in one area, enhances the command, control, and communications support of a number of field teams from the central operating base, facilitates logistics and reduces the insertion problem of the special augmentation personnel (Explosive Ordnance Disposal [EOD], crash investigators, documentary photographers, and CIL recovery teams). A review of the steps that would be involved in the recovery process follows. First, the Casualty Resolution Staff develops selected areas for search and investigation based on known crash and grave sites. The detailed planning and coordination effort using all available information culminates in an aerial search of the area, if authorized. This combined research will be followed by insertion of the forward operating base and later the field teams and special augmentation personnel. A detailed search and inspection will follow. The results of these missions will be carefully documented. Upon completion of the search and investigation process, the teams and forward operating base will be extracted. Remains that have been located will be flown to the CIL for identification. After analysis and recording has been completed, a detailed report will be forwarded to the services to assist in final determination on status of the personnel. Identified remains will be returned to the United States for burial as desired by next of kin. 8 s-con_293_024_001_A1b.pdf Page 5 of 6 This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas https://dolearchives.ku.edu Text of United States Note Concerning Missing in Action Delivered to the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam July 29, 1973 In view of the fact that more than six months have elapsed since the signing of the January 27, 1973 Agreement on Viet-Nam and more than six weeks since the signing of the Joint Communique of June 13, 1973, the USG notes with serious concern that the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam has failed to comply with Article 8B of the Agreement and paragraph 8E of the Joint Communique which require the parties to "Help each other to get information about those military personnel and foreign civilians of the parties missing in action, to determine the location and take care of the graves of the dead so as to facilitate the exhumation and repatriation of the remains, and to take any such other measures as may be required to get information about those still considered missing in action." Although there have been continuing discussions of these subjects in the FPJMT, the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam has refused to cooperate in the necessary actions to implement this basic humanitarian obligation. The United States Government has provided complete lists of American personnel listed as missing in action with requests for information. No information has been provided. The United States Government has repeatedly sought to arrange the repatriation of remains of Americans who died in captivity. No remains have been repatriated. The accounting for the missing and the repatriation of remains are purely humanitarian obligations unrelated to other issues. They could have been largely carried out by now if a spirit of good will and cooperation had been manifested on this subject. This would have brought solace to the families and loved ones of the more than 1,300 Americans listed as missing, and of those who have died but whose bodies have not been returned. The United States Government calls again on the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam to help get information on the military personnel and foreign civilians .of the parties missing in action. This can be accomplished promptly by responding to the request for information on the lists that have already been provided. The United States Government would be pleased to provide additional data on specific cases to assist in getting such information. The United States Government also requests the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam promptly to accomplish the exhumation and repatriation of remains, and to enable the JCRC to carry out its humanitarian mission. * * * * * 9 s-con_293_024_001_A1b.pdf Page 6 of 6