| Join the Conversation | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
JPAC's Museum/CIL Partnership Program
As part of the JPAC mission to account for Americans missing as a result of previous conflicts, recovery operations are performed throughout the world. One of the goals of the recovery operations is to obtain material evidence that can be used to support the identification of missing individuals. Material evidence is a general term that applies to personal effects, uniform items, weapons, tools, aircraft parts, and more. Material evidence is curated in the Central Identification Laboratory (CIL) upon the return of our teams from the field. Items with probative value are then analyzed, researched, photographed, and described in a formal report. Typically, personal effects are released to the appropriate next of kin following the resolution of a case. Other items are retained indefinitely by the CIL. Material evidence retained by JPAC's CIL following case resolution occasionally has significant value beyond its meaning in the context of full accounting of the missing. This value includes the potential of individual artifacts to tell the story of brave men and women who have given their lives in the service of their country. Consequently, the JPAC CIL has entered into partnerships with selected museums that specialize in telling the story of America's military heroes. The partnerships, established through a memorandum of understanding between the museum director and the JPAC CIL Scientific Director, provide a mechanism by which the CIL can permanently loan artifacts to museum partners. This web page provides general instructions for museum partners wishing to request artifacts on loan. These procedures apply equally to all museum partners. The specific conditions under which the JPAC Central Identification Laboratory (CIL) will loan artifacts to a museum partner are articulated in the Memorandum of Understanding between the CIL and the museum. We hope to improve our request procedures and this web site. If you have suggestions for ways to make these procedures more museum-friendly or to improve the design of the web site, please contact Dr. John Byrd and the JPAC Webmaster. The mode of presentation of the available artifacts is the Material Evidence Report (MER), which contains background information, photographic images, and narrative descriptions of each item. CIL anthropologists and archaeologists generate a MER for every case that includes material evidence. Once a case is closed and the family of the deceased has selected the items which they are entitled to receive, the MER from that case will be posted in this web site and museum partners may make requests of individual items. Artifacts that are no longer available will be clearly marked as such. Requests will typically be granted on a first-come-first-served basis. However, there will occasionally be instances in which multiple museum partners request the same items. In these cases, the CIL Scientific Director shall grant the materials to the museum that he determines will best serve the interest of JPAC and the general public in their use of the materials in question.
A request form has been provided in this page to facilitate artifact requests from museum partners. The form requires the entry of the museum name, the name of the requesting official, and the email address of the requesting official. The requesting official must be a person authorized by the museum to make requests on its behalf. The MER number is the report number taken from its title, and the individual artifact number is as given in the report. A comments block gives the requesting official the opportunity to make detailed requests. If the museum is willing to accept a similar item in the event that the requested item is unavailable, then the requesting official should so indicate. The request form can be reached from the link entitled, "Request Form." Forms can be emailed to Note: Each of the links below will take you to a Material Evidence Report (MER) compiled by JPAC. The reports have been saved as .pdf files and require Adobe Acrobat Reader. EuropeNorth Africa
New Guinea
Note: Each of the links below will take you to a Material Evidence Report (MER) compiled by JPAC. The reports have been saved as .pdf files and require Adobe Acrobat Reader. North Korea
South Korea
Note: Each of the links below will take you to a Material Evidence Report (MER) compiled by JPAC. The reports have been saved as .pdf files and require Adobe Acrobat Reader. VietnamLaos
Cambodia
|
Dr. John Byrd (john.byrd@jpac.pacom.mil)
Click here
1996-033