Viewing Metadata and Original Document
Click on a collection item to view the complete original document and its associated metadata. From this page, you can click on the image of the item to view a pdf of the entire document. You can also view the metadata under “About This Item.” While not every metadata field is relevant to every item, fields you may see correspond to those listed above.
Search Tips
The following provides guidance for searching this Collection, a database of metadata assigned by FRD analysts to the original U.S. government documents. Although this portal accommodates free-form searching of all the metadata, it is useful for understanding the fields and formats that were used to tag the original documents in order to search them most effectively.
| Field Name | Description | Search Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Documents were tagged if they fell within one of three categories: Casualty Report, Misc PW Files, or Source Report. Please note, however, that not all of the documents fit into one of these categories. | Search these terms if you are interested in casualty or source reports. |
| Comments | These provide a more detailed description of the document. | Conduct free-form searches for specific words, terms, or phrases. Additional DTGs or IIRNs may be included in this field as well. |
| Country | Limited to a specific list of countries, this field provides the location of incident. | Documents pertaining to Cambodia, China, Laos, pre-1975 North Vietnam, pre-1975 South Vietnam, post-1975 Vietnam, and Thailand can be searched using the pull-down Location filter on the left-hand side of the page. There are some records tagged for other countries, for example, Russia or USSR. Documents tagged for other countries can be found using the country name search bar at the top of the page. |
| Date of information or Date of report | This is the date on which the most recent relevant information relayed in the document was obtained, or the date on which the document was created. | Conduct free-form searches of month or year of the document in the format: YYYY-MM-DD. If dates are illegible or not provided, they are tagged for the first of the month or year that is known. For example, 1973-01-01. You can also use the Date filter on the left side of the page to drill down to a specific date of information or date of report. |
| Date Time Group (DTG) | DTG is the military format used to date official communications. It indicates the year, month, day, hour, and minute a message was sent. The combination of an Originator and a DTG should pinpoint a specific document. | The format for a DTG is DDHHMM”Z”MMMYY. Remove any punctuation marks and all spaces when searching for a DTG. If you know the DTG, you can also use the Date filter to refine your search results by month and year. |
| Intelligence Information Report Number (IIRN) | The IIRN is the number assigned to a government intelligence report. | IIRNs usually contain ten digits. Remove any punctuation marks and all spaces when searching for an IIRN. |
| Keywords | Limited to a specific list of keywords, these terms also contain the pre- or post-war province names where the incident took place. | Items have been tagged with the following standard list of keywords: Aircraft Downed, Crash Site, Died Captive, Dog Tag, Executed, Grave Site, Ground Battle, Killed, Live Sighting, Missing, Personal Effects, PW Camp, PW Other, PW Transit, Remains, and Suicide. |
| Name | This field features the name(s) of those persons involved in the incident. As the names are formatted as they appear in the original document, they may include, in addition to last name, a full first name, a middle name, or just an initial. | Even if you know the service member’s full name, search the last name only to yield the most results. You can also use the Name filter on the left side of the page to view an alphabetical list of the different variations of a service member’s name that appear in the documents. |
| Originator | The originator is the person, agency, or entity that created the collection item. This collection, which includes documents created over a span of more than 50 years, contains many variations in names and organizational designators, especially for military and civilian government entities. |
Originator names are formatted as they appear in the original document. Use variants, including acronyms, when searching a particular originator. |
| Pages | This field is a holdover from when the documents were only available on microfilm. Please note that this data is required to obtain any records not accessible online. | The page number(s) of the document you are interested in are required to locate a document on microfilm. Items only available on microfilm can be obtained through the Library of Congress Microform Reading Room (https://www.loc.gov/rr/microform/searching.html). Request these by collection call number 92 300. |
| Reel | This field is a holdover from when the documents were only available on microfilm. Please note that this data is required to obtain any records not accessible online. | The reel number(s) of the document you are interested in are required to locate a document on microfilm. Items only available on microfilm can be obtained through the Library of Congress Microform Reading Room (https://www.loc.gov/rr/microform/searching.html). Request these by collection call number 92 300. |
| Reference number (Refno) | The Refno is the number assigned by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to a loss incident. | Refnos may take the form of XXXX (the incident number) or XXXX-XX-XX (the incident number followed by a designation for each individual involved). Use dashes (“-“) when searching extended Refnos. |
| Service branch | Limited to a specific list of options, this field identifies the affiliations of the individual(s) involved in an incident. | Limit your service branch searches to Civilian, Foreign, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Navy. You can also use the Service Branch filter on the left of the page to refine your search results. |
| Source number | This is the number assigned by the DoD to a source providing information on missing U.S. personnel. Please note that the source names are redacted. | A source number is a one- to five-digit number. |
| Subject | This field indicates the formal subject or title of the original document. | Conduct free-form searches for words, terms, or phrases likely to be in the subject field of the original document. |
For questions on this Collection, contact the Federal Research Division at 202-707-3900.