{{Short description|Vietnam War United States defense task force}} {{Use American English|date=December 2023}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
The '''Joint Casualty Resolution Center''' (often referred to as '''JCRC''') was a joint [[task force]] within the [[United States Department of Defense]], whose mission was to account for United States personnel listed as [[Missing in Action]] (MIA) in the [[Vietnam War]].
==History== ===Background=== The JCRC's precursor organisation, the [[Joint Personnel Recovery Center]] (JPRC) was established in September 1966 under the control of [[Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group]] (MACV-SOG) to establish a personnel recovery capability within [[Military Assistance Command, Vietnam]] (MACV). The JPRC was responsible for evaluating information on missing or captured US personnel and coordinating and conducting personnel recovery operations throughout Southeast Asia.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service//frd/pwmia/377/114864.pdf|title=JPRC Fact Sheet|publisher=Military Assistance Command, Vietnam|access-date=29 December 2023}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>{{rp|42}}
While JPRC successfully coordinated missions that recovered [[South Vietnam]]ese [[prisoner of war|Prisoners of War]] (POWs), throughout its existence the JPRC never recovered a single [[United States prisoners of war during the Vietnam War|US POW]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Mud in the data stream|newspaper=The New York Times|author=Arnold R. Isaacs|date=1 March 1998|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/reviews/980301.01issacst.html}}</ref>
In April 1972 the ten JPRC personnel and their MIA records were transferred from MACV-SOG to the Director of Intelligence, J-2, MACV. At the end of November 1972, JPRC was provisionally renamed the Joint Casualty Recovery Center.<ref name=MACV>{{cite web|url=https://vva.vietnam.ttu.edu/images.php?img=/images/1683/168300010836.pdf|title=MACV Command History January 1972 - March 1973 Volume II|publisher=Military Assistance Command, Vietnam|access-date=29 December 2023}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>{{rp|G-5}}
===Activation=== On 23 January 1973, in anticipation of the imminent signing of the [[Paris Peace Accords]], the JCRC was activated under the command of [[Brigadier general (United States)|Brigadier general]] [[Robert Kingston]] with its temporary headquarters at the MACV Headquarters complex at [[Tan Son Nhut]], [[Saigon]].<ref name=MACV/>{{rp|G-8}}
Unlike the JPRC with its focus on POW rescue, the JCRC's mission was to resolve the status of the then 2,441 Americans MIA in Indochina.<ref name=Melson>{{cite book|last=Melson|first=Charles|title=U.S. Marines In Vietnam: The War That Would Not End, 1971–1973|publisher=History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps|year=1991|isbn=9781482384055|url=https://archive.org/details/TheWarThatWouldNotEnd|page=234}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>
The first activity of the JCRC was [[Operation Homecoming]]. When the first groups of US POWs were released by [[North Vietnam]] and the [[Vietcong]] (VC), JCRC personnel were sent to [[Clark Air Force Base]] in [[The Philippines]] to assist in the initial POW debriefings. They worked with service debriefers to obtain information on missing personnel who were not being released in the POW exchange in an attempt to obtain more complete details of those who were still carried as MIA.<ref name=MACV/>{{rp|G-8}}
By late January 1973 the proposed 110-man JCRC had been increased by 29 personnel on the recommendation of [[CINCPAC]]. This increase resulted in he expansion of field teams to 11, six to conduct casualty resolution operations in [[Laos]] and the [[Khmer Republic]] and five in South Vietnam. The teams would be augmented by specialists as required. Two control teams and launch units were formed with the missions of dispatching field teams and providing command and control while they were operating in the field.<ref name=MACV/>{{rp|G-8}} The JCRC teams interviewed refugees, searched crash sites and participated in technical talks with the North Vietnamese. The US Army's Central Identification Laboratory supported the JCRC with the recovery and identification of remains.<ref name=Melson/>
Under the terms of the Paris Peace Accords, MACV and all American and third country forces had to be withdrawn from South Vietnam within 60 days of the ceasefire. A multi-service organization was required to plan for the application of U.S. air and naval power into North or South Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos, should this be required and ordered. Called the United States Support Activities Group & [[Seventh Air Force|7th Air Force]] (USSAG/7th AF), it was to be located at [[Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base]] in northeast [[Thailand]] and was activated on 11 February 1973.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Le Gro|first=William|title=Vietnam from Cease Fire to Capitulation|publisher=United States Army Center of Military History|year=1985|url=https://history.army.mil/html/books/090/90-29/CMH_Pub_90-29.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160807064541/http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/090/90-29/CMH_Pub_90-29.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 August 2016|isbn=9781410225429|page=18}}{{PD-notice}}</ref> On 15 February the JCRC was transferred to Nakhon Phanom and USSAG/7th AF command.<ref name=MACV/>{{rp|G-8}}
===Operations=== On 15 December 1973 Captain Richard Morgan Rees serving with Field Team 6, Control Team B, Headquarters, JCRC was killed when VC forces ambushed a joint US-South Vietnamese team engaged on an MIA recovery mission {{convert|15|mi}} southwest of Saigon. A South Vietnamese pilot was also killed in the attack and another four Americans were wounded. As a result of this attack all US MIA field recovery efforts were indefinitely suspended.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Dunham|first1=Maj. George R.|last2=Quinlan|first2=Col. David A.|title=U.S. Marines in Vietnam: The Bitter End, 1973–1975 (Marine Corps Vietnam Operational Histories Series)|url=https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/U_S_%20Marines%20In%20Vietnam%20-%20The%20Bitter%20End%201973%20-%201975.pdf|publisher=History & Museums Division; Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps |year=1990 |location=Washington D.C. |isbn=978-0-16-026455-9|pages=6–7}}{{PD-notice}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dpaa.mil/Our-Missing/Vietnam-War/|title=Vietnam War Accounting|publisher=Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency|access-date=11 October 2016}}</ref>
===Reorganisation=== Following a directive from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CINCPAC on 11 June 1975 directed the disestablishment of USSAG/7th AF. The disestablishment was effective at 17:00 on 30 June. With the disestablishment of USSAG/7th AF, control of the JCRC reverted to CINCPAC.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nautilus.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/c_seventyfive.pdf|title=CINCPAC Command History 1975|publisher=Commander in Chief Pacific|date=7 October 1976|access-date=29 December 2023}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>{{rp|36}}
In May 1976 the JCRC moved to [[Naval Air Station Barbers Point]], [[Oahu]], [[Hawaii]].<ref name=Melson/>
In 1992 the JCRC became the [[Joint Task Force - Full Accounting]].
==List of commanders== *Brigadier general [[Robert Kingston]] (January–December 1973) *Brigadier general Joseph R. Ulatoski (January–December 1974)
==See also== *[[Vietnam War POW/MIA issue]] *[[List of United States servicemembers and civilians missing in action during the Vietnam War (1961–65)]] *[[List of United States servicemembers and civilians missing in action during the Vietnam War (1966–67)]] *[[List of United States servicemembers and civilians missing in action during the Vietnam War (1968–69)]] *[[List of United States servicemembers and civilians missing in action during the Vietnam War (1970–71)]] *[[List of United States servicemembers and civilians missing in action during the Vietnam War (1972–75)]]
==References== {{reflist}}
[[Category:Vietnam War POW/MIA issues]] [[Category:Missing people organizations based in the United States]]