Museums and Researchers Join Forces to Open Up America's MIA Files

America’s missing in action troops and buried unknown soldiers are the focus of a new alliance between Texas military museums and a team of global researchers.  Today, the Sons of Liberty Museum, the Army Air Corps Library and Museum, and the MIA Recovery Network announced a strategic partnership to help in researching and locating American military personnel who were lost in combat.

Leveraging a global organization of researchers, the MIA Recovery Network has accumulated an enormous amount of information about missing service men and women, as well as the “Buried Unknowns” from World War II.  The Sons of Liberty and Army Air Corps Museum are providing a robust technological platform for the accumulation and mining of current and future data.   This critical data is being published on the SOLM and AACLM websites.

The information on each MIA or Unidentified soldier has been placed on an individual web page and as of today, more than 22,000 web pages of information have been created. This outstanding collection of material furthers the joint mission of the museums to provide historical education as well as public access to unique reference materials.

This addition to the museums’ collective internet platform means that more than 215,000 web pages of unique content are viewable to the public.  Cross-referencing of serial numbers has revealed that the museums’ already had some material relating to awards that these MIAs received.   This provides another data point to the file on each MIA and publishing will enable historians, researchers and family members to view and augment this material.  

To provide some historical context:  on this anniversary of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor there remain over 1500 unknown soldiers buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii, known as the Punchbowl.  As of today, there are approximately 78,000 American soldiers still missing in action from World War II.

To view the information on MIA or Unidentified soldiers, please visit:

http://www.sonsoflibertymuseum.org/missing-in-action/

http://www.sonsoflibertymuseum.org/buried-unknowns/

http://www.armyaircorpsmuseum.org/missing-in-action/

http://www.armyaircorpsmuseum.org/buried-unknowns/

The museums are based in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area.  Contact Robert Coalter at 214-957-1393 for more information.

Sons of Liberty Museum

www.sonsoflibertymuseum.org

Army Air Corps Library and Museum

www.armyaircorpsmuseum.org

KIA Recovery Network

miarecoverynetwork.com

The Sons of Liberty Museum, Army Air Corps Library and Museum and the MIA Recovery Network are  501(c)(3) non-profit entities.