Kathy Reichs: Spider Bones

Aloha, Spider.

Gracias, Luis.

Find peace here, Plato.

My Mazda was in the same place I’d parked on the day of the exhumation.

“Got your game on, tough stuff?”

“Ready for the play-offs.” Katy grinned. Bleakly.

“What do you suppose Coop left you?”

“I have no idea.”

“Let’s find out.”

FROM THE FORENSIC FILES OF DR. KATHY REICHS

UNTIL THEY ARE HOME

The mission of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, JPAC, is to locate Americans held as prisoners of war and to recover those who have died in past conflicts. JPAC was created in 2003 by merging CILHI, the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii, and JTF-FA, the Joint Task Force–Full Accounting. To date, the United States government has found no evidence of any POW still in captivity, so JPAC’s day-to-day focus is on the investigation of leads and the recovery and identification of remains.

On average, JPAC identifies six sets of human remains each month. The process is complicated, requiring substantial forensic expertise and multiple levels of review.

That’s where I came in. Back in the CILHI day, I served as an external consultant. My duties included analyzing the dossiers of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines for whom positive IDs had tentatively been established, and visiting the Honolulu lab twice yearly for oversight and briefing.

Hawaii. Midwinter. Think that was an easy sell to my department chair at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where I was on faculty with a full-time teaching load?

As Ryan complained to Tempe, the military loves its alphabet soup. At CILHI, I was issued a glossary of acronyms as thick as my arm. KIA/BNR: killed in action, body not recovered. DADCAP: dawn and dusk combat air patrol; AACP: advance airborne command post; TRF: tuned radio frequency. Or trident refit facility. I guess context is important for that one. But you get the idea. It makes a civilian want to join the AAAAAA: the Association for the Abolition of Abused Abbreviations and Asinine Acronyms.

While I’ve tried to provide a peek into some of the operations at JPAC, much goes on that I’ve not described in Spider Bones . JPAC representatives engage in constant negotiation with governments around the globe, and they work closely with various U.S. agencies to pursue all leads that might bring missing Americans home.

Each year JPAC recovery teams travel by horseback, boat, train, and helicopter to recover the bodies of U.S. troops missing from World War II, Korea, the Cold War, and Southeast Asia. They slash through jungles, rappel cliffs, scuba dive into trenches, and climb up mountains, toting their weight in survival and excavation equipment. In comparison, my job was a stroll through the park. Physically, at least. Emotionally, it was gripping.

Through Tempe, I’ve tried to convey the feelings I experienced while examining the files of men and women killed long ago and far from home while serving their country. The maps, photographs, correspondence, unit histories, and medical and personnel records made each case painfully real.

But my time with CILHI wasn’t all sad. When not focused on work my colleagues and I had fun. I remember when Hugh Berryman, P. Willey, and I splashed in the Waikiki surf, giggling like kids. And the trip Jack Kenney blew multiple traffic signals and earned the enduring nickname “Red Light.” Or when Mike Finnegan and team posed as my undercover security unit and literary manager at a book signing. Through both work and play, I forged bonds that will last a lifetime.

JPAC wasn’t always as I describe it today. When headquarters moved to Hickam Air Force Base in the early nineties, the staff included only a handful of anthropologists. Today there are more than two dozen.

And the scope of operation has expanded. In 2008, the CIL opened the Forensic Science Academy, an advanced forensic anthropology program taught under the auspices of the DoD. Department of Defense. (Yep. There’s another one.). In 2009 a U.S. Navy hydrographic survey vessel, the USNS Bruce C. Heezen , conducted underwater investigation operations in Vietnam’s territorial waters, a historic first, marking a strengthening of cooperation between JPAC and the Vietnamese government.

Change was afoot even as Spider Bones went to press. On January 29, 2010, U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Donna L. Crisp relinquished command of JPAC to Army Major General Stephen Tom. (Had to scramble to include that update.)

JPAC’s mission is daunting. Approximately 78,000 Americans remain missing from World War II, 8,100 from the Korean War, 120 from the Cold War, and 1,800 from the Vietnam War. Tirelessly, personnel continue to interview, search, dig, analyze, measure, and test.

A commemorative board hangs in the lobby of JPAC headquarters, engraved with words similar to those found on POW/MIA flags: Not To Be Forgotten. Tiny brass plaques bear the names of those identified since 1973. Happily, there are many plaques.

JPAC’s motto appears at the front of this book: Until They Are Home.

JPAC staff close their meetings and events by repeating the words aloud. In 2009, recovery teams deployed to sixteen countries on sixty-nine missions. JPAC scientists identified the remains of ninety-five men and women.

And they will identify many more.

Until They Are Home.

For information on the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command visit their website: www.jpac.pacom.mil.

For specific information on a missing American, call or write:

Department of the Army

U.S. Army Human Resources Command

Attn: AHRC-PDC-R

200 Stovall Street

Alexandria, VA 22332-0482

800-892-2490

Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps

Manpower and Reserve Affairs (MRA)

Personal and Family Readiness Division

3280 Russell Road

Quantico, VA 22134-5103

800-847-1597

Department of the Navy

Casualty Assistance Division (OPNAV N135C)

POW/MIA Branch

5720 Integrity Drive

Millington, TN 38055-6210

800-443-9298

Department of the Air Force

HQ Air Force/Mortuary Affairs

116 Purple Heart Drive

Dover Air Force Base, DE 19902

800-531-5803

Department of State

U.S. Department of State

CA/OCS/ACS/EAP/SA29

2201 C Street NW

Washington, DC 20520-2818

202-647-5470