The JCRC's precursor organisation, the Joint Personnel Recovery Center (JPRC) was established in September 1966 under the control of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) to establish a personnel recovery capability within Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV).
[3]: G-8 Unlike the JPRC with its focus on POW rescue, the JCRC's mission was to resolve the status of the then 2,441 Americans MIA in Indochina.
This increase resulted in he expansion of field teams to 11, six to conduct casualty resolution operations in Laos and the Khmer Republic and five in South Vietnam.
[3]: G-8 The JCRC teams interviewed refugees, searched crash sites and participated in technical talks with the North Vietnamese.
[4] Under the terms of the Paris Peace Accords, MACV and all American and third country forces had to be withdrawn from South Vietnam within 60 days of the ceasefire.