The laboratory section referred to as JPAC’s Central Identification Laboratory, is staffed by more than 30 anthropologists and three forensic odontologists (dentists), all with advanced degrees and specialized experience. Staff members are responsible for the skeletal analysis of human remains, the analysis of material evidence, and when they are deployed, they are responsible for all aspects of the archaeological excavation of the site. The CIL has made many positive advances in recovery and identification procedures and continues to be the premiere facility of its type in the world.  Our scientists continually develop innovative techniques when working to identify remains. The CIL is also accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors--Laboratory Accreditation Board.  JPAC-CIL is the first, and only, skeletal identification laboratory so accredited.

A variety of techniques are used to establish the identification of missing Americans. The tools include analysis of skeletal and dental remains, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis, material evidence, and analysis of personal effects and life-support equipment. More information to the identification section of the command overview.

The best way to answer this question is to explain the process of identification. Upon arrival at the laboratory, all remains and artifacts are assigned an accession number (for tracking purposes), signed over to the custody of the CIL and stored in a secure area during all stages of analysis. While scientists in the lab perform an initial analysis of the evidence to try and establish what they have, the core identification work does not begin until a site excavation is closed and all available evidence is gathered at the lab.

A variety of techniques are used to establish the identification of missing Americans.  The tools include analysis of skeletal and dental remains, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis, material evidence, and analysis of personal effects and life-support equipment, each process taking time and lengthy investigation. The JPAC Scientific Director, who maintains control over the entire identification process, evaluates these overlapping lines of evidence.  The CIL’s staff of forensic anthropologists examine all recovered skeletal remains in order to produce a “biological profile.”  This profile includes the sex, race, age at death, and height of the individual.  Anthropologists also analyze any trauma cased at or near the time of death and any pathological conditions of bone such as arthritis or previous healed breaks. This entire procedure is carried out “blind,” so the forensic anthropologist assigned the case in the laboratory is not the same individual who completed the recovery in the field.  This anthropologist doesn’t know the suspected identity or details of the loss incident at the time of analysis.  The blind analysis is completed in order to prevent any subconscious bias from influencing the scientist’s analysis.

Once all lines of evidence point to a certain MIA, the case is deemed 'resolved'. This lengthy process ensures the identification is accurate and complete. The bottom line for the identification process is that an identification cannot be made until (1) all evidence is gathered and (2) all available ‘lines of evidence’ point to the same person. When the scientific director signs off on an identification, it means that the ID is both scientifically and legally sound – to ensure the best and most reliable science was used for each case, JPAC also sends out each case for a final ‘peer review’ by an external party to verify that the ID was accomplished correctly and that no mistakes were made. In the event that the evidence is not conclusive, the case must remain open until we hopefully find new evidence, or new technologies or techniques come along that allow us to positively establish an identification. Another step that may add a long amount of time to the ID process is if we need to get a Family Reference Sample to establish a familial link with mitochondrial DNA. This process involves getting a sample from an appropriate family member AND having a sample of bone analyzed by the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in Maryland. Both processes may take a long time to complete – for the DNA analysis alone, we are just one of many customers of AFDIL (they are also responsible for DNA testing for all of the active duty military, to include casualties from our current conflicts in the world). Finally, once the identification is established, we notify the appropriate service Casualty Assistance Office.  These offices are responsible for notifying the family and making logistics and burial arrangements.  The final stage may also take from weeks to several months.

This is a very difficult question to answer. We have approximately 1000 boxes in our lab broken down by the percentages indicated below:

• roughly 40% are Korean War-related cases
• roughly 40% are Vietnam War-related cases
• roughly 20% are WWII-related cases
• a small handful are in the ‘other’ category (Cold War, Civil War, etc)

Boxes, however, don't equal cases and cases don't equal individuals. One box might contain 4-5 individuals; conversely, one individual might be in 5-6 boxes. In addition, our 1000 boxes include several hundred unidentified non-American Asians. We also have boxes of remains turned over by governments that have defied identification attempts. Many of these will never be identified, but some will. Each year we identify 1-2 of these 20-year-old cases. The most important point is that these 1000 boxes do not represent a backlog - we carry each case forward as far as we can go given available evidence and technology. If we can make an identification, we do.

We are especially seeking Family Reference Samples for the Korean War-related cases that we have in our lab. Unlike Vietnam War losses (where we put a case together before we recover a site, thus giving us a short list of possible individuals we are seeking), the Korean remains held in our lab came to us without much information.  We need family DNA to have as comparisons in hopes that we can reduce the list of possible IDs from hundreds or thousands to dozens. Shortening the lists through DNA comparisons can give us the key to unlocking the IDs of hundreds of remains obtained from North Korea over the last 25 years that are in our lab today.

In general, remains in the lab fall in to the following categories:

• Remains we cannot identify using current technology. This can be for many reasons, but one of the main reasons is that we have such a small amount of remains that we can't say anything about them scientifically. For many cases, we’re holding them in the hope of a technological advance, allowing us to ID them in the future.
• Remains from sites that are not yet closed. We do not start looking at remains until a recovery site is totally closed and we’ve recovered all that we can.
• Remains are not of U.S. service members (for example, we’ve determined that some of the remains we have are mongoloid, indicating that the remains are from someone who is from Southeast Asia.
• Remains can’t be potentially identified until we get more information (such a mitochondrial DNA reference sample)

Foremost, JPAC scientists ensure that the site has been closed and we have all the remains and artifacts from the site. The case will be held until the recovery is complete. Once the recovery is complete, we’ll look at what we have to estimate the ‘ID potential’ … in other words, how easy or difficult does it look like it’s going to be to identify given remains (we look at if we have teeth, are able to do DNA testing, how difficult it will likely be to extract DNA). As the cases come in, they are sorted and assigned based on the likelihood that the JPAC scientists will be able to successfully complete identification.

It depends on whether we are using nuclear DNA or mtDNA. Nuclear DNA, like mtDNA is shared between casualties and their families, but in a different way. Everyone gets half of their nuclear DNA from their mother and half from their father. This means that close kin such as parents and children make good references. It also means that kin such as full siblings also make good references because each full brother or sister of the casualty shares 50 percent of the casualty’s nuclear DNA. Normally, we already have samples on file of brothers and sisters from mtDNA testing. We can retest the samples to get the nuclear DNA markers.

While we have used nuclear DNA to aid in the identification of two individuals to date, tests of this sort are normally not performed on skeletal materials of relative antiquity (old remains). In general, we will only use nuclear DNA when (1) we can get mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from remains, (2) mtDNA results were inconclusive and (3) we need this additional evidence to confirm an identification. In the cases that we used nuclear DNA, the results were intended to augment the results of mitochondrial DNA testing rather than stand as an independent line of evidence. We hope to use nuclear DNA more in the future as technology and scientific techniques improve.

The mitochondrial DNA technique that we use for the skeletal-to-family comparison does not provide a unique “fingerprint” type match.  Mitochondrial DNA provides strong support for identification in many cases, but it is just one part of the total evidence package.  Because mitochondrial DNA profiles are non-unique, the DNA evidence ruling out certain individuals is sometimes more important than the evidence showing that DNA is consistent. 

About three-fourths of recent individual identifications have used DNA testing. In many cases, it can be hard to track down a suitable donor for a casualty who died 30, 50 or even 60 years ago, and this represents a particular challenge for the service casualty office. While we seek family reference samples for WWII cases on an as needed basis, it is the policy of the government to assemble a database of DNA references for each and every unaccounted-for service member from the Vietnam and Korean conflicts.  The government recognizes that in addition to the efforts of the casualty officers of the different service branches to locate suitable donors and persuade them to volunteer a reference sample, that private citizens, casualty family and veteran’s organizations can also play an important role in the process of ensuring that family reference samples are located in a timely and effective manner.

In cases where multiple individuals' remains became co-mingled, and we are not able to segregate them, the ID may be made of the group.  We can find evidence of each of the missing in the group, we're just unable to separate the remains.  In these cases, they are buried as a group.

One really interesting high-tech technique used by our scientists is a method we’ve developed to use isotopes to identify the origins of remains.  Isotopes are atoms of a chemical element that have the same chemical behavior, but have different atomic mass and physical behavior. For example, there are several different isotopes of oxygen atoms that all perform the same chemically but have slightly different masses. CIL focuses its studies mainly on the oxygen atoms that make up water. As we drink water, it's incorporated into the make-up of our bones. While most bones re-form completely every five to seven years, a person’s teeth are completely formed by about age 14 and remain unchanged for the remainder of life. So, the isotopes that make up a person’s teeth are the same that they were during the first decade of their life.  Since water at different latitudes of the world is made up of different oxygen isotopes, lab researchers could determine where a person likely grew up by analyzing teeth they find in the field. This could be especially helpful for identifying remains from Southeast Asia, as the latitudinal differences between the United States and that region are very different.

Many of our identification efforts involve mitochondrial DNA analysis which is traced through the maternal bloodline. Today's technology allows us to identify some remains through mitochondrial DNA.  So if you know of a family member who is from the maternal bloodline of an unaccounted-for American, please ask them to contact the appropriate military service or Department of State for missing civilians to provide a blood sample at U.S. Army: (800) 892-2490; U.S. Air Force: (800) 531-5501; U.S. Navy: (800) 443-9298; U.S. Marine Corps: (800) 847-1597; Dept. of State: (202) 647-6769.