MIAs and PoWs

[Bill Shatzer]

How did the military treat MIA personnel for the purposes of pay and
allotments?

Were these cut off when personnel went into MIA status? Or, if the pay
and allotments were continued, where did the money go? Into some sort of
trust fund payable to the soldier if and when he turned up alive and was
returned to duty or to his next of kin when his death was confirmed?
Or was it paid to the next of kin directly while he was in MIA status?

There would seem to be problems with both approaches.

[David Wilma]

The U.S. continued pay and allotments until there was a Finding
of Death. Internees were also paid. don't know how other nations
handled it. Dad recalled POWs and internees returning to fat pay
envelopes.

POWs are supposed to be paid by the holding power at the pay
level of their own soldiers. For U.S. soldiers this was not a good
deal, but for Axis soldiers in U.S. custody not so bad. One wonders
the economic impact to devastated nations of liberated POWs
with several years of U.S. soldier pay.

A question arises for Allied POWs after defeat. Some in Soviet
custody did not return home for ten years. I doubt they had their
pockets full of money.

[Mario]

Post by David Wilma
POWs are supposed to be paid by the holding power at the pay
level of their own soldiers. For U.S. soldiers this was not a
good deal, but for Axis soldiers in U.S. custody not so bad.
One wonders the economic impact to devastated nations of
liberated POWs with several years of U.S. soldier pay.

I think most of Italian POWs never saw that money that US govt.
gave to Italian govt who used it to recover from war
destruction.

[Rich]

Post by Bill Shatzer
How did the military treat MIA personnel for the purposes of pay and
allotments?

Current U.S. Code/DOD Regs are:

MIA Pay and Allowance Entitlements: A Soldier who enters a missing status
is entitled to the pay and allowances to which entitled which the missing status
began or to which a member later becomes entitled while missing.
The right to a certain pay is not affected by the fact the member had
not actually received payment before entering the missing status.

MIA Allotments: Allotments in effect before a Soldier enters missing status
may be continued. As directed by the Secretary of the Army (or designee),
allotments may be initiated, suspended, resumed, increased, decreased, or discontinued where circumstances so warrant in the
interest of the missing Soldiers, the Family members, or the government.

I doubt there was a substantive difference in World War II.

[Jim H.]

Post by Bill Shatzer
How did the military treat MIA personnel for the purposes of pay and
allotments?
....

I honestly can't answer that with any real authority. But
I think I encountered a partial maybe-answer when I was in the
USN during VN. While I really don't recall lot of detail,
we were paid every 2 weeks. We filled out a
pay chit stating what we wanted to draw out of what we'd
earned. Any balance was left "on the books".

I suspect the same method was used for WW II MIA's & POW's,
at least for the short term. But I have no experience or idea
of how allotments to dependents were handled.

As far as I can recall, no interest was paid on the balance left
on the books, so the government had the use of a moderate amount
of 'free' money. But it was still a convenient system that no
doubt reduced petty theft & worry, since we only needed a few
tens of dollars to get thru two a pay period at sea.

Jim H.

[WJHopwood]

Post by Bill Shatzer
How did the military treat MIA personnel for the purposes of
pay and allotments?

The following websites may be helpful:

The first outlines detailed info covering current policy
in this regard which as far as i know differs little if any
from how such matters were handled in WWII,

http://myarmybenefits.us.army.mil/Home/Benefit_Library/Federal_Benefits_Page/POW__MIA_Entitlements.html?serv=227

in addition, the following additional website outlines
procedures by which former POWs and Civilian internees
could also make separate claims for compensation from
Japan and Germany in accordance with the following
excerpts from a summary therefrom:
"After...WWII, Congress passed the War Claims
Act of 1948, which created a War Claims Commission
(WCC) to adjudicate claims and pay out ... compensation
payments from a War Claims Fund consisting of seized
Japanese, German, and other Axis assets. Payments to
POWs held by either Germany or Japan were ... $1 to
$2.50 per day of imprisonment. The WCC also paid civilian
internees of Japan $60 for each month of internment, and
civilians were also eligible for compensation for disability
or death. The War Claims Act ....did not authorize
compensation for civilian internees held by Germany.

http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/usprisoners_japancomp.htm

WJH