There are a few reasons why the internship at Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command- Central Identification Laboratory interested me. To begin, JPAC-CIL is one of the leading employers of forensic anthropologists in the nation. At any given time there are over thirty forensic anthropologists on staff. Their goal is to attempt to fully account for every missing American soldier from past conflicts. To intern at this facility would provide the best opportunity to work with a large staff of anthropologists. Personally, I chose this internship because having grown up as a dependent in the military myself I have always been drawn towards a career that is involved or connected with the military. When I started studying forensics it was not long before I heard of the work done at JPAC-CIL, furthering my education and my personal background led to my eventual aspiration of working at JPAC-CIL as a forensic anthropologist. Their mission to bring home and identify the lost American soldiers is an aim that I can connect to on a personal level that others may not be able to fully understand or connect to.
JPAC-CIL is comprised of two different facilities. JPAC is responsible for the account of missing soldiers. It is comprised of the active military portion of JPAC-CIL with over 400 military personnel. The CIL is the laboratory portion of JPAC that is responsible for the searching, recoveries, and identifications of the remains. The CIL is comprised of mostly civilian workers such as the forensic anthropologists.
As an intern at JPAC-CIL the duties that were to be performed were to assist any of the staff with any project they needed to complete. Working with the skeletal remains, a basic knowledge of osteology was needed. Cleaning and sorting was generally what was expected with the skeletal remains. The remains were to be placed in anatomical position on the tables, facing towards the flags. Facing the flag is an institution in the military that is carried even into death. In some instances, reconstruction of certain parts of the skeletons was conducted such as the skull. With reconstructing the bones, the knowledge of osteology helps because many times the bones are fragmented, sometimes beyond recognition.
Two other projects that I assisted on involved radiographs and soil samples from around the world. The radiographs were chest x-rays of soldiers from World War II enlistments that were being checked for tuberculosis. These radiographs were being used in a study to try and link race by a mathematical formal with the clavical. The task performed by interns was to check over the radiographs and document the condition of the film into a database. The soil project was started to determine a possible cause for lack of bone material at certain sites because of pH levels. Interns were to sanitize the soil by heating them in beakers. To test for the pH of the soil we would place a measured amount of soil into beaker and dilute with distilled water. We also Munsell color tested the soil with the standards from Munsell color charts.
The autopsy suite was used for collecting DNA samples and the material evidence analysis. A particular case that I assisted with stands out. On the tables inside the suite were bags and metal trays with pieces of material evidence inside. In one metal tray was a military issue helmet with a combat boot next to it on the table. They were both worn and badly damaged. It was when I saw these items that I realized the importance of JPAC-CIL’s mission. These destroyed articles were pieces of a soldiers’ everyday attire from the war. These objects were also items that were at the lab because they belonged to a soldier that had been lost at war for decades. This was the beginning of my ultimate respect for the work that is done at JPAC-CIL. The emotions that I felt looking at the personal items of fallen soldiers were overwhelming and consumed my thoughts for the rest of the internship. The work that JPAC-CIL accomplishes is of great importance to the United States. No matter what cause of the loss of soldiers in times of conflict the least we can do, as their country, is bring them home to their family.
Another incident where the mission of JPAC-CIL was reinforced was when a deployment from Vietnam had just returned the day before. The evidence and remains were brought into the lab early that morning. It was later in the afternoon that I was asked to help photograph the evidence that had been received by JPAC-CIL. The chain of command required a paper and photograph trail of all evidence into the CIL. I began by photographing the containers that the evidence bags were located in. Next, I checked to make sure the correct amount of evidence bags were present and began to photograph every bag. This was a long process because there were bags that contained bags. Sometimes within one bag was over a hundred smaller bags filled with small pieces of evidence. Every bag had to be photographed before opening and photographing the smaller bags within.
JPAC-CIL’s mission was a goal that I found important before I stated the internship. It was not until after I completed the internship that I realized how much the mission would affect me. It was the same for other employees as well. There was a day when the biologists that collected DNA samples from bone samples received a picture of a soldier that had been correctly identified because of DNA. The family had sent a picture of him in his uniform. She was incredibly happy and moved to tears that she was able to help bring him back to his family. JPAC-CIL is not a commonly known facility to most but word is spreading about their mission and accomplishments at returning missing military personnel. The more identifications that are made the more the work of JPAC-CIL is heard about.
The JPAC-CIL internship gave me a chance to see the work of forensic anthropologists as well as an experience that is uniquely JPAC-CIL. There is no other forensic lab that conducts the same work as JPAC-CIL. This internship provided me a hands-on experience to my anthropology education. Since JPAC-CIL has been the lab I have wanted to work for since I began studying forensics, interning there was a great way for me to meet the forensic anthropologists that work there, observe their working, and ask questions.
Advice for fellow students, if there is a type of internship that you are looking for, keep looking and take advantage of internships even if they seem impossible. I thought that I was not going to be able to do this internship because it was completely unpaid and JPAC-CIL does not offer any information about staying in Hawaii for the internship. It was a stressful adventure to organize my trip but the experience gained from the internship is worth every penny I spent.