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I’m not totally “in the know” on this, but can state that in searching for the missing, two of the only leads are memories of veterans of the unit of the missing man and records of combat actions. Army historians have received inquires from the MIA/POW folks requesting records or to study and comment on Army records as to where to search. One of the worst is looking for USAAF MIAs in the South Pacific, where planes went on missions and never made it back and no one knows if the plane went down at sea or crashed on an island. For example—how long have people been trying to find where Ameilia Earhart crashed.

Of the many missing/pows from Korea, the US has to deal with the perfidy of the North Korean government, which sees remains of GIs as a bargaining chip to get food and fuel shipments from the USA.

The North Korean government is willing to use any means to get these because it knows how much pressure there is on the US government to find and return the remains of those who were listed as “missing in action.”