First JPAC team members begin to arrive Published Oct. 24, 2012 OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. -- Even with their future home still under renovation, a few Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command members started trickling on to base last week. They are the first of roughly 50 JPAC team members who will be part of a new Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command CONUS Annex opening here in 2013. "The new laboratory facility here, the JCA, presents a number of challenges while at the same time presenting even greater opportunities to serve the POW/MIA community," said Dr. Greg Fox, who is the lead local JPAC representative. "The JPAC team has been welcomed here with open arms and the base personnel continue to be extremely supportive." Falling directly under the U.S. Pacific Command, JPAC is a jointly-manned organization of nearly 500 military and civilian specialists. Headquartered on the island of Oahu at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, they conduct global search, recovery and lab operations to identify unaccounted for American POW and MIAs from past conflicts. "We are pleased to welcome the JPAC to Team Offutt," said Col. John Rauch, 55th Wing commander. "We are ready for them to join Team Offutt and the 55th Wing is ready to support them and their mission in any way we can." The new JCA lab at Offutt will help JPAC meet a congressional mandate to achieve identification on 200 remains per year beginning in 2015. "Now that we're here we can focus on the details of setting up the lab," said Fox. "Those details include hiring and training local hires, procuring equipment to start our analyses, and ensuring that the laboratory will be able to meet and pass the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors-Laboratory Accreditation Board in the spring of fiscal year 13. All of this is critical to JPAC meeting our 2015 mandate." The new lab will be housed in Building D, also known as the Martin Bomber Building, where the Air Force Weather Agency was previously headquartered. They will occupy approximately 40,000 square feet for lab and analysis work, evidence and record storage and admin space. "Building D has a long and important role in American history and the space that the JCA is taking over requires extensive renovation to bring it up to the standards of a modern forensic laboratory," he said. "The design and development team has produced an excellent design for the adaptive reuse of the existing structure. Offutt's 55th Civil Engineering Squadron has been extremely helpful in getting the work started on the remodeling of the facilities." Work is expected to continue on the new annex until early next year and JPAC's goal is to be fully operational by mid-to-late 2013. Once complete the annex will include both scientific and support personnel including anthropologists and archeologists as well as forensic odontologists. For more information on the JPAC, visit their website at www.jpac.pacom.mil or follow and like their mission on Facebook at JPAC Teams.