Pentagon Leadership Directs Look into MIA Recovery Efforts

An allegedly scathing report resulting from an internal review of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command has prompted the Defense Department leadership to direct a look into the command’s operations, said Pentagon Press Secretary George Little. “We’re going to review the concerns raised in the report to see how JPAC is or isn’t functioning well,” Little told reporters on July 9. “And if steps need to be taken to remedy what’s happening inside JPAC, then we’ll take action,” he said. The Honolulu-based JPAC is charged with recovering and identifying US service personnel missing in action from past conflicts. Recent news reports have chronicled the report’s purported critical findings of JPAC operations. For example, CBS News reported that the command’s efforts are “woefully inept and even corrupt.” JPAC’s efforts are considered sluggish, often duplicative, and subjected to too-little scientific rigor, according to CBS News, citing the report, which the Pentagon has not publicly released. (Includes AFPS report by Claudette Roulo) (For a different perspective, read Leaving No One Behind from Air Force Magazine’s March 2013 issue).