Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to combatants, military chaplains, combat medics, and prisoners of war who are reported missing during wartime or ceasefire. They may have been killed, wounded, captured, executed, or deserted.
abbreviation for missing in action: used for saying that a member of the armed forces has not returned from fighting in a war but is not known for certain to be dead : High numbers of military were still listed as MIA. This is done routinely to identify the remains of MIA soldiers.
One of the lingering and deeply troubling aftermaths of any war is the unknown fate of those listed as missing in action (MIA). These individuals were killed on the battlefield unseen, or died as prisoners, or met with other misfortune.
World War II Accounting
At the end of the war, there were approximately 79,000 Americans unaccounted for. This number included those buried with honor as unknowns, officially buried at sea, lost at sea, and missing in action. Today, more than 73,000 of those lost Americans remain totally unaccounted for from WWII.
Our research and operational missions include coordination with hundreds of countries and municipalities around the world. As this map shows, at present, more than 81,500 Americans remain missing from WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the Gulf Wars/other conflicts.
Since the renewal of U.S. POW/MIA recovery efforts in the 1970s, the remains of nearly 1,000 Americans killed in World War II have been identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honors.
Although North Vietnam was a signatory of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, which demanded "decent and humane treatment" of prisoners of war, severe torture methods were employed, such as waterboarding, strappado (known as "the ropes" to POWs), irons, beatings, and prolonged solitary confinement.
STATUS OF THE POW/MIA ISSUE: October 24, 2022
1,582 Americans are now listed by DPAA as missing and unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War: Vietnam - 1,242; Laos–285; Cambodia-48; Peoples Republic of China territorial waters–7. (These numbers fluctuate due to investigations resulting in changed locations of loss.)
Soldiers designated with Captive, Missing, or Missing in Action (MIA) status are entitled to receive the pay and allowances to which entitled when the status began or to which the Soldiers later become entitled.
Patrick Gavin Tadina served in the Army for 30 years.
Once there is evidence about their absence, they will transition to another duty status. For example, if it is found that a Soldier went missing involuntarily, the Soldier's duty status becomes duty status-whereabouts unknown, or DUSTWUN.
Average U.S. Army Soldier yearly pay in the United States is approximately $35,040, which is 12% below the national average.
Once captured by the enemy, prisoners of war are subject to the laws of the armed force that is holding them. They must act according to the rules and regulations of their captors, and breaking those rules leaves them open to the same trial and punishment as that faced by a member of the detaining military.
Collectively the United States often called them the Viet Cong. It was commonly shortened to VC, which in military alphabet code was spoken as Victor Charlie. It was further shortened to just Charlie. American soldiers called them Charlie, they called themselves liberators.
While the Committee has some evidence suggesting the possibility a POW may have survived to the present, and while some information remains yet to be investigated, there is, at this time, no compelling evidence that proves that any American remains alive in captivity in Southeast Asia.
During the Vietnam War Monika Schwinn, a German nurse, was held captive for three and a half years - at one time the only woman prisoner at the "Hanoi Hilton". The following missionaries were POWs: Evelyn Anderson, captured and later burned to death in Kengkok, Laos, 1972.
US lost five major wars after 1945
The US had won almost all the major wars it fought before 1945. However, the US was unable to get any significant victory in its wars abroad.
At one time distributed by the National League of Families, bracelets are now available from a decades-long strong issue-supporter, the nonprofit, Ohio Chapter MIA-POW (see address below) which donates 100% of all proceeds to help sustain the League's efforts.
If this wasn't possible, the bodies of soldiers killed in battle would be collected and given a mass cremation or burial. In the event the bodies couldn't be recovered, a cenotaph would be erected to serve as a monument to the individual.
Following the end of the war, the Japanese government started a project to recover the soldiers' bones in 1952 on Iwoto. But only 10,000 of the war dead have been unearthed and sent to commemorative facilities and their families, meaning that remains of more than 10,000 have not been retrieved.
Dozens of remains are recovered every year, but about 12,000 Japanese are still classified as missing in action and presumed killed on the island, along with 218 Americans.