"Question about MIA stats" Topic

Are these ever adjusted when a diffinitive answer is found?
To site just two examples:
My dad was a paratrooper at Normandy as was MIA for four days (his folks even got a telegram) as he was cut off while at Timems Orchard.
One of his mates was listed as missing but they found his paybook on a German soldier. Later upgraded to KIA.

Would either of tehse individuals still count as MIA on the stat sheet? Which is true:
1) If they ever get a difinitive answer, the number is adjusted down.
2) Once listed as MIA, they never readjust the total number, even if later found (alive or dead) – though they will adjust the individual's situation.

I'm too ignorant to give you a definitive answer, but keep in mind you've got two situations. If someone asks the G-1 of 10st Abn on June 8th what he's got for people, the answer would be in terms of KIA, WIA and MIA--probably no one being definitively a POW that early. They'll replace the KIA and WIA, and wait for the MIA to turn up. If they're still MIA when the division heads back to England that's different. That's the numbers you need to keep the divisions at full strength.

If someone asks "how many people did we lose in WWII?" That's the running total for the war, and SHOULD only be the still unresolved cases on VJ-Day, slowly going down over the years as bodies turn up here and there, or existing remains are properly identified. But I'm not sure who would be in charge of keeping count--Office of the Chief of Military History, at a guess?--and I'm not at all sure historians or editorial writers go to the OCMH for the latest adjusted figure instead of just citing whatever they've read already. Someone once said that "MIA a few months after the war just means 'they never found the body.'" Pretty much true.

MIA could be a POW and then died in custody and never found.
POW and escaped and then died before he got back.
POW and escaped and never bothered to return for whatever reason.
I read of one US POW shot down aircrew held in German custody, who was released by the Germans as the Soviets approached. He stayed with the Germans rather than get mistaken for a German by the Russians.
MIA could be AWOL who had a girl in town, or a criminal, or just tired of war and never turned himself back in. I read there were thousands of GIs who when to Paris and never returned to their units.

dpaa.mil

These guys keep track.
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

I suspect it may different by nation. However, in the US Army in WW2, they were somewhat careful to not report someone as MIA or KIA right away unless they had confirmation. Doing so trigger the telegram, and everyone knew what that would do to a family. Men always went missing in combat, and many would drift back or be found in hospitals. IN reading Company Morning reports you can find men listed as KIA days (and longer) after they were actually killed. The clerks (at all levels) would keep running totals, and those numbers were known to be guestimates until after the war ended and they could clean up the records. In theory the army maintains a current number, but a while back I tried to find out some figures for a book, and the Army passed buck, sent me all over, and no one knew.

My father was a Navigator in the 15th air force in WW 2. He was forced to bail out in May 1944. He was releashed and flown out of Romania in Sept 1944. He was shipped home for a month's leave.

When he reach the US, He hoop the 1st train home. When he go off the train in his Hometown no one notice him, So he walk to His Dad's farm South of Town. As he walk through the dusty field to the Farm. His Father saw what he thought was a Dust devil. He finally saw that it was his son and drop to his Knees.

My Grandmother also saw him and drop to pray. The War Department had gotten his Serial nunmber mixed up and reported him KIA. They were planning his Funeral for the next Sunday. The Army makes mistakes, but my Grandma always said it took years off her life.

Here's a web site with a summary of the situation as regards WWII MIAs:
link
But you can see that since they listed 79,000 at the end of the war and currently list 73,000, the numbers are being reduced as remains are found, and since there are accompanying files discussing the possibility of recovering the remains, it would seem that the 79,000 would not include anyone who turned up alive as of VJ-Day.

Wackmole9
Your story is happier than mine, in some ways.
My dad was with the 1/507 at Normandy. However, because of a misdrop, he ended up with the isolated group under LtC Timmes (mostly 2nd battalion men) for 5 days or so.
According to what my mother and older brothers told me, his parents and first wife (not my mother) got a telegram saying he was MIA. Grandma fainted (only child) and his first wife said something to the effect of, "Do I get the insurance money now?"
Sometime later, after the regiment got together, and he was "back on the rolls" so to speak, his family got another telegram saying he had been wounded but was staying, the first wife's response was "I guess this means I don't get the insurance now."
They divorced shortly after he got home.

I never asked him personally about it, as that felt rude. But that is the story I was told.

Thanks Robert, that answered the question.

You're welcome, Korvessa.

Please be assured your father was not alone. I heard an eye-witness account of a soldier returning from Desert Storm and being told by his wife (accompanied by her new boyfriend) that "if you'd just gotten killed, everything would have been perfect."

Hard to please everyone.

Robert,
Check this out:
This is a photo fo a reunion from the middle 90s around the time of the 50th anniversary of the airborne. The man standing on the far right is identified as SSG Landry. He is th eonly one with that last name listed on the roster. He was in same outfit as my dad (HQ/1/507) so would have known him.
link

Now this is how the roster lists him:
link

Photo link is nonop, but I bet he looked pretty good for a guy killed after VE Day.

That said, I've spent 'way too much of my life with databases. Carefully put together and well maintained, they're statistically useful enough, but they're never trustworthy on individual cases. 95% accurate and without bias is plenty good enough to tell you how many people need this or that training or where you stand on equipment, but it still means one field in 20 is wrong.