MIA

MIA (missing in action). While casualties are normally thought of as either dead or wounded, a third category exists, the MIA. A soldier is so listed if he cannot be located after combat. This could be the result of temporary separation from his unit, of desertion, or, as was often the case for those shot down over enemy territory, of the period of limbo before advice was received of the death or capture of the missing airman. The increased power of weapons in the 20th century added another gruesome category to this list. During WW I, it was found that soldiers could be completely destroyed or buried by artillery fire, leaving no remains behind for identification. The names of 54, 000 such British soldiers are inscribed on the Menin Gate memorial in Ypres. Most countries buried a symbolic unknown soldier in a place of maximum honour. In Britain the Unknown Soldier is buried at the centre of the nave of Westminster Abbey, the resting place of monarchs.

Countless men have died while recovering the bodies of fallen comrades and proper accounting for human remains is an extremely emotive issue. The issue of MIAs in Vietnam continued to bedevil efforts to normalize diplomatic relations 25 years after the last US soldier was evacuated.

— Robert Foley