Embassy of the United States

Detachment Two (Det 2), Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command is a selectively manned, joint duty, geographically separated, forward operating detachment. Our mission is to plan, coordinate, and execute humanitarian efforts to achieve the fullest possible accounting of American citizens who became unaccounted-for during the Vietnam Conflict-era, primarily in Vietnam, but we also assist with similar efforts in Laos and Cambodia. Within Vietnam, we sustain four 740-member joint U.S/Vietnamese teams per year to investigate the fates of unaccounted-for American citizens, and to locate and recover their remains. Each team is composed of about 100 American military members and United States Department of Defense civilian employees, and more than 100 officials from all levels of the Government of Vietnam, and about 600 local laborers.

We are the United States Government's resident experts in Vietnam on Prisoner of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA) issues.

Officially known to the Government of Vietnam as the U.S. MIA Office, Det 2 is manned by seven full-time Americans. There are two officers, two enlisted personnel, and three civilians. Additionally, we are augmented by one long-term, temporary duty Vietnamese linguist from Headquarters, JPAC. At the Detachment, about 20 Foreign Service nationals work as administration and logistics assistants, security guards, drivers, and housekeepers.

Headquarters, JPAC, is located with United States Pacific Command (PACOM), at Hickam AFB in Honolulu, Hawaii. Our headquarters provides us policy, guidance, and the results of research. JPAC has detachments in Bangkok, Thailand; Vientiane, Laos; and Hanoi, Vietnam. The detachment in Bangkok is our logistics base and staging area. The detachments in Hanoi and Vientiane use the research results the headquarters provides to resolve the fates of the unaccounted-for using current policy and guidance.

• Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command
• POW/MIA Database - Library of Congress
• Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office
• United States Pacific Command
• United States Department of Defense