Getting Them Home: Crossing the Borders, From Field to Lab

Summary

The mission of DPAA is to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing service-personnel from past conflicts.  This mandate requires the transportation of biological materials, including human skeletal and dental remains, from archaeological field locations and unilateral turnovers to DPAA laboratory facilities in Hawaii and Nebraska.  DPAA archaeological investigation, survey, and excavation sites are located across the globe, and the movement of these materials oftentimes involves multiple international jurisdictions and host and transit counties, as well as interlocking DoD agency responsibilities.  In addition, due to the historical development of the accounting effort, DPAA works within existing forensic review processes in certain countries, established over time in accordance with local government requirements and from post-conflict, intergovernmental negotiations.  This paper will provide a general overview of these processes while focusing on several specific examples that detail the field-to-lab movement of recovered remains from select jurisdictions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• "Same Same, but Different": Considerations and Approaches to Archaeology within the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 596