Eric Chaney earned his Bachelor of Journalism from University of Missouri-Columbia.  Prior experience includes extensive online and archival research, fact checking, editing and genealogical research.

Ellen Cody received her History/Art History degree from Emory University and a Master of Historic Preservation from the University of Georgia.  She brings research and writing experience including historical documents, legal case summaries and genealogical research.

Jeanne-Marie Roberts earned her bachelor’s degree from George Mason University and a Master of Historic Preservation from the University of Georgia.  Prior experience includes conducting architectural research, historic preservation assessments, writing reports and genealogical research.

We are excited to welcome all three to Smith & Carson and to our genealogy group that provides comprehensive investigative and genealogical services to the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force.  We are honored to assist the military in our small way in their overall mission to provide the fullest possible accounting of all service members from past wars and conflicts.

More than 83,000 Americans are missing from World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the 1991 Gulf War.  Hundreds of Defense Department men and women — both military and civilian — work in organizations around the world as part of the Department of Defense’s personnel recovery and personnel accounting communities.  They are all dedicated to the single mission of finding and bringing our missing personnel home.  The mission requires expertise in archival research, intelligence collection and analysis, field investigations and recoveries, and scientific analysis.

We are excited to welcome Andrea Griffin to our team as a Managing Director. Andrea is primarily responsible for developing and managing marketing initiatives for Smith and Carson as a whole, including the pre-employment screening division Critical Research and the suite of Smith & Carson Smart Systems software products. Through marketing, Andrea aims to increase the market presence and awareness of all services our companies provide. Behind the scenes, Andrea also responds to requests for proposals from government and private entities initiating new business development and broadening Smith & Carson’s overall client base.

Andrea earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Georgia. Prior to joining Smith & Carson, Andrea spent over 10 years in the background screening industry, specializing in servicing healthcare sectors. Prior experience includes active roles in business development, mergers, marketing, operations, public relations, research and company positioning.

Smith & Carson, Inc. has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Army’s Past Conflict Repatriations Branch to provide services to locate living relatives of unaccounted-for Army service members from past conflicts. Smith & Carson has been assisting the U.S. Air Force in locating relatives of unaccounted for veterans since July 2010 and is honored to aid the U.S. Army in its efforts.

The Past Conflict Repatriations Branch is an organization under the Army Casualty and Memorial Affairs Operation Center (CMAOC) at the Army Human Resources Command (HRC) in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Their primary mission is to collect, assess, integrate and distribute to the next of kin, concerned citizens, and other government agencies information relating to Soldiers who remain “unaccounted-for” from World Wars I and II, the Korean, and the Vietnam War. They maintain contact with family members through phone calls, written and email correspondence, in person at Family Member Updates, and during Annual Government Briefings (Korea and Southeast Asia only). They are also responsible for implementing legislation and POW repatriation plans, maintaining case files for unaccounted-for Soldiers and for conducting Army POW/MIA awareness programs.

Smith & Carson is honored to assist the Past Conflict Repatriations Branch with this important mission. The following statistics are of personnel unaccounted-for from World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars:

World War II:
Total: approximately 78,000 of which approximately 40,000 are Army

Korean War:
Total: approximately 8,100 of which approximately 6,300 are Army

Vietnam War:
Total: approximately 1,800 of which approximately 590 are Army

For more information, view this Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) command video that provides an overview of the mission and operations.

View Video

On August 6, 2011, Annandale Village in Suwanee, GA held its first annual Miss Suwanee at Annandale Pageant. Annandale Village is an award-winning nonprofit organization dedicated solely to serving adults with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injuries. Smith & Carson sponsored the event, allowing all villagers to participate, regardless of their financial situation.

Learn more about Annandale Village at their website, www.annandale.org.

We are pleased to announce that Sonja Thompson has joined us as the Senior Managing Director of our newly created legal technology practice. Sonja is a dynamic subject matter expert with twelve years in the legal sales field, all with Thomson Reuters. She is a graduate of Baylor University School of Law, and is a member of the Texas State Bar. Sonja will be working out of the Atlanta office, but will have geographic responsibility throughout the United States.

This annual government briefing was held July 21-23, 2011, in Arlington, Virginia. Family members of American service members who are missing in action from the Vietnam War had the opportunity to meet with numerous civilian and military specialists of the government whose expertise includes: foreign government negotiation, formulation of national policy, remains recovery and identification, DNA science, archival research and intelligence analysis. There were formal presentations, question and answer sessions and one-on-one discussions between government officials and family members. Smith & Carson representatives attended this event.

Smith & Carson was a sponsor of the 31st Annual Installation and Awards Luncheon of the Miami-Dade chapter of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers, which was held on June 17, 2011. The Annual Installation is always well-attended by the legal community, including many state and federal judges, who support the organization and want to pay tribute to Miami-Dade FAWL and its Mattie Belle Davis Award recipient.