This series consists of Missing Air Crew Reports (MACRs) relating to Army Air Forces planes (and occupants) that were officially declared destroyed or missing in action during World War II. The basic document in each case file is usually the MACR form (AFPPA-14). For military personnel the information on the form covers their full names, grades, army service numbers organizations, and home stations. For civilians, if any, the information on the form covers their full names, positions, and employers. For the aircraft, it covers the date and hours the plane was lost and classified by the commanding officer as lost. Also contained on the MACR form is a statement that the emergency addressee of each occupant has been notified or that the home station commander has been requested to make such notification. Some reports include the name or names of persons with some last knowledge of the aircraft.

Few MACRs forms contain all of this information, especially those prepared in 1943 and 1947.

In addition to the MACR form, MACRs include one or more other kinds of documents. Often present is an "Individual Casualty Questionnaire" (AFPPA-11) completed by a witness to the loss of a single crew member. After listing the name, rank, serial number, and crew position of the casualty, and the number, date, and destination of the mission, the respondent, who was not a crew member himself, indicated when and where the casualty bailed out of the plane and where he was last seen. The questionnaire usually also includes the source of this information and any explanation the respondent might have had of the casualty's fate. Another kind of document found in many case files is the "Casualty Questionnaire" (AFPPA-12), which, unlike the "Individual Casualty Questionnaire," was completed by a member of the crew who had survived the crash or loss of the aircraft and who responded to questions concerning the flight itself and all the remaining members of the crew. Many files also contain at least one "statement," a brief narrative account of the occurrence, signed by a member of the crew or an eyewitness to the crash.

Other kinds of records found in the case files include aerial photographs of the crash site and of the aircraft, annotated maps of the flight pattern and the location of the crash, and related correspondence. Files documenting losses of aircraft over German occupied Europe often include German documents, mostly Luftgaukommando reports captured at the close of World War II, or English translations of extracts from these documents. These records often indicate which, if any, crew members survived and the place of their incarceration. In addition, the burial location of dead airmen is sometimes given.