The VFW met twice this week with a Russian delegation from the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIA Affairs, and their Ministry of Defense. The commission’s purpose is to help break down bureaucratic barriers in order to help determine the fates of American and Russian MIAs from World War II through the end of the Cold War. It was formed in 1992 by then Presidents George H.W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin to help thaw superpower relations around a humanitarian issue. The delegation’s agenda included research at the National Archives as well as working group meetings with Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency officials. They also visited the U.S. Naval Academy and laid a wreath at the grave of Capt. John Paul Jones, who post-American Revolution would be made a rear admiral by Empress Catherine II of Russia.