News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Bob Necci & Carol Hrdlicka, Andi Wolos
(POW-MIA FaxNetwork)

Re: An Open Letter To Congress

Date: August 24, 1997

Received this from Ted Guy.

Subject: Open letter to Congress
Cc: Ambassador, Frank A., Red M
X-Attachments:C:\My Documents\Open letter to the United States Congress.doc;

8/11/97

The Washington Times
National Weekly Editon
Dear Sir:

If at all possible we would like to have your great newspaper publish the following "Open Letter to the Congress". This letter is about some legislation that will be voted on within the next couple of weeks -- when Congress returns. We strongly feel, as do the families of past POW/MIA's that the correction of the ill advised last changes to the MSPA will preclude any real accounting of the past or future POW/MIA's. In my Microsoft Word attachment is the complete text of the bill as well as more detailed comments by we four POWs. I would appreciate an answer, either pro or con within the next 48 hours, if at all possible. All our phone numbers are listed under the POW's names and two are in the Washington Area. Any of us is available for discussion if further information is needed. I also imagine any of the co-sponsors would be willing to discuss the issue with you. Hopefully, this letter can be placed in your Commentary section, but any place in the Times would suffice. If desired, it can also be sent by FAX. Hoping for a favorable consideration. Cc of this message is going to the other four writers.

Sincerely,
Ted Guy
XXX XXX-XXXX

Open letter to the United States Congress from
Former Vietnam Prisoners of War

During the Vietnam war 58,169 people sacrificed the ultimate and gave their lives. Today their names are engraved in the black granite of the Vietnam memorial. Tens of thousands more were wounded or became casualties of AmericaÍs longest conflict. Among those called upon to serve their county were several hundred civilians from various governmental agencies and civilian contractors. All were citizens of the United States. Three hundred and twenty-three of these civilians were at one time or another declared missing. Of these 323, the fates of 172 remain unknown.

Presently making its way through the halls and offices of our elected senators and congressmen/women are two bills. One introduced in the House by Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Solomon, Mr. McHale, Mr. Talent and Mr. Sam Johnson (another former Vietnam POW). This bill is H.R. 409 and would amend Title 10, US Code, to restore provisions relating to missing persons that were gutted in the closing minutes of the 104th Congress. The other bill introduced in the Senate by Mr. Campbell and Mr. Ford is referred to as Senate 755. The purpose of S-755 is almost identical to H. R. 409.

The Missing Persons Authorities Improvement Act of 1997, as both of the bills are referred to by many of their supporters, would restore several key provisions for personnel sent in harmÍs way that were removed in the final hours of the 104th Congress. One of the key provisions expunged in these final moments was assurance that civilians, who served their country during armed conflict, would have the same guarantees as our soldiers. Is providing civilians, whether they be employed by The Defense Department, The State Department, civilian contractor or whomever, the same rights and protections of soldiers, sailors and airmen too much of a burden? We think not; be-cause in our minds they are all citizens of the United States of America and perform acts in its defense.

One of us (Col. Ted Guy) was a commander of several POW camps during the Vietnam War. For three years he commanded camps (jails) composed of personnel captured in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. At warÍs end they were 107 strong. He has stated on many occasion that "although not much is ever heard about us, I assure you that this is and was the finest and bravest bunch that I have ever had the privilege of commanding." Many under his command were civilians. As a commander he as-signed duties and responsibilities to his most highly qualified individualsƒpeople he says "I could trust under the most trying conditions." Many of these duties involved covert and overt actions against the enemy. Several assignments were made to civilians who performed equally as well as more experienced military personnel.

The other provisions contained in both S-755 and H.R. 409 that must be restored are equally as important as the civilian argument. For example, it is particularly critical that the expunged provision for making a preliminary assessment of the status of a missing individual of 48 hours be restored. The individuals in the House and Senate fighting against any change to last year's bill want the assessment of status to be and remain at ten days. No rational argument exists for not starting investigations within 48 hours. The idea that the commander may be too busy is a cop out and only adds additional confusion and room for errors. If engaged in hostile action where lives are in danger, additional time is certainly warranted and would be allowed. But to issue a blanket authorization to delay for ten days any assessment is not in anyoneÍs best interest, certainly not the missing individual or his mother, father, or spouse.

We urge each and every congressperson and senator to closely examine what he or she are doing to AmericaÍs fighting men and women, whether they be civilian or military, before you bow to an easy way out. The accountability for our future soldiers and ci-vilians who will do the fighting, dying and maybe missing, must be strengthened, not diminished.

We are certain that many more former POWs would have signed this letter if we had asked. The authors of this letter who are urging that the issue be restored are Captain (USN) Eugene (Red) McDaniel, captured on 19 May 1967 near Hanoi, North Vietnam; W04 (USA) Frank Anton, captured on 5 January 1968 near Chu Lai, South Vietnam; Mr. Michael Benge, captured 1 February 1968, South Vietnam and Colonel Ted Guy, captured on 22 March 1968 near Tche-Pone, Laos We are representatives from three different services and the State Department, captured in three different countries, all in-volved in the Vietnam War.

Theodore W. Guy Col. USAF (Ret)

Eugene B. McDaniel Capt. USN (Ret)

Mr. Frank Anton W04 USA (Ret)

Mr. Michael Benge Civilian

Other comments pertaining to the above

The civilian change is needed to protect those civilians who are working with the military during time of war. For example, Mike Benge would have been covered under this provision if it had been in place. Also those like Mel Holland who are unaccounted-for from Lima Site85 (and many others that were involved in covert operations in Laos and Cambodia) would be protected.

As we are painfully aware many were not, initially, even considered an MIA or possible POW because of working in covert operations. This must be corrected and it is essential to have it restored to protect the rights of those individuals who are currently NOT covered prior to the passage of the original "Missing Service Personnel Act-FY96" in Feb 96, nor since the passage of the "McCain Amendment" which removed this section from the MSPA in late 96.

Assurance must also be made to civilian workers of the DoD that their peers will represent them at a board of review and not just by members of the military.

As it stands today, our civilian workers working in conjunction with our military have no case reviews or legal representation. We feel this strongly violates the civil rights or our civilian patriots.

We believe that the 48 hour assessment must be reinstated because 1) the "theater component commander" is closer to the situation at hand and has the resources at his disposal to conduct missions to possibly extract the missing personnel and 2) time is critical! Few successful recoveries are going to take place 14 days after the individual(s) concerned are missing! As the law stands today, it is possible a rescue attempt may not be taken until AFTER the 14 day reporting deadline. The current law does not insure timely notification to those with the resources at hand to insure prompt action.

The section on review is needed to insure AUTOMATIC reviews of all cases of those personnel suspected or KNOWN to have been alive at capture. As we have seen over the years, our State Dept. and the DoD seldom, if ever, discuss these type of cases that our intelligence records show were alive and in the hands of our former adversaries. The current law allows the DoD to declare these particular individuals KIA without timely reviews, due process, or ANY evidence to verify these individuals are, indeed, dead.

Further, we personally feel the current law, as amended in late '96, gives our government the ability to ignore these particular cases when, in fact, these cases could possibly provide information that should be brought before an International body for War Crimes. Those who have held our service personnel captive should be able to provide first-hand information as to the whereabouts or demise of those personnel who were in their control.

As we well know, this is NOT the case and our own government appears to make these last-known-alive cases a very low priority and, in effect, gives immunity to their captors who may have caused such death through torture or inhumane treatment.

On another positive note, the restoration of the review section would make the DoD more credible and send a strong message to all of those who are and will be serving in our Armed Forces that in the tragic event they become missing-in-action or a prisoner-of-war, that their own government will continue all efforts to account for them prior to simply declaring them dead. We feel this will only enhance the image of our Armed Forces as a viable career to the young, patriotic men and women of this country that might consider the military as a career.

Various family members have publicly reported in the past that copies of official documents they have acquired have either been removed or never entered into their missing loved-ones personal file. A requirement exists to insure that the unaccounted-for individual's legal representative and next of kin have ALL information pertaining to their missing loved one.

Without this how is the missing individual to be truly represented at a board of review? How do you objectively review these particular cases when pertinent information is not included in the record? Obviously an objective review would be impossible and any found guilty of willfully withholding such information are currently exempt from any criminal wrongdoing. The current law is completely unsatisfactory in this regard and virtually renders the current MSPA useless and without any teeth to insure compliance of this public law.

A professional qualified in forensic science is urgently required to certify that the remains presented are, indeed, that missing person. As we have seen in the past the DoD has turned over remains for burial to the families that later proved NOT to be their loved-ones remains. Restoration would help restore confidence in the identification process for the family members to find closure. Again, a dimension of credibility would be added to the identification process and that one tooth from a group of bone fragments would not positively account for the death of a set of remains as we have seen in the recent years. It is vital to insure such identifications are held to the highest possible forensic standards available at the time of such identification.

In closing we would like to point out that the 104th House of Representatives passed HR409 by a record number of votes, 404 Yea, 0 Nay.

That fact, by itself, should demonstrate that the 104th House carefully considered this vital legislation and considered it vital to insure oversight of the DoD. As Rep. Talent stated in his 1 Aug 96 Special Orders speech when HR409 was not included in the Defense Authorization Bill to fully restore the "Missing Service Personnel Act" as was signed into law in Feb '96:

OPPOSITION TO DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL
(House of Representatives - August 01, 1996)
[Page: H9834]

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Talent] is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. TALENT. Mr. Speaker, I rise to explain my opposition to the conference report on the defense authorization bill which the House passed earlier this evening. Mr. Speaker, shortly after I was elected to the Congress in 1992, several constituents first raised with me the POW-MIA issue. It did not take a great deal of research before I concluded, to my shame, that our Government had left hundreds of POW's behind in Vietnam at the end of that war. Since I entered the Congress I have participated in hearings which have only reinforced my original conclusion in that matter. In fact, the Government's denials in these hearings have taken on a feeble and pro forma quality, as if they know and we know that what they must say for the record is not true.

Like many other Members, I continue trying to expose this truth publicly, but I am not so naive as to believe, with all the foreign policy, economic, and personal interests at stake that any administration is likely to admit that several hundred men were left behind following Operation Homecoming in 1973, and that a 20-year bipartisan coverup has since occurred.

"But I did think it possible to make better provisions for servicemen in the future. I was very pleased when in last year's authorization bill Congress passed the Missing Service Personnel Act. This Act established a separate agency to track POW/MIAs granting extensive powers to that agency and legal rights to the families of missing servicemen. The new legislation made it much less likely that soldiers could be left behind in subsequent wars. It tacitly recognized and, therefore, partially redeemed the sins of the past.

"Nothing could give better meaning to the past sacrifices of our POWs than real action to insure that others are never abandoned as they were. However, during debate on this year's bill and at the urging of the Pentagon, the Senate adopted an amendment gutting the legislation passed only six (6) months ago loosening standards for investigation and certification. As has so often been the case with the POW/MIA issue, it is impossible to fathom the reason for the Senate's and presumably the Pentagon's position. Certainly the families and the veterans organizations will be mystified and heartbroken.

"As I said before, the new law has only been in place for six (6) months. What have we learned in that short period of time that justifies so significant a change? Why do we now believe that it is acceptable for a commander to wait ten (10) days before reporting that one of his men is missing in action? Why is it less important now than it was six (6) months ago to require that forensic standards be satisfied before identifying a body based on one (1) tooth, or one (1) bone? And what has the Department of Defense done since the beginning of the year that should convince us to err on the side of giving it more discretion in making these determinations, given its dismal record, over the last twenty (20) years?

"Mr. Speaker, I cannot blame any Member who decided to vote for this Conference Report because of the good things in it--notwithstanding what it does to the cause of POWs and MIAs. Everyone has to make his own decisions in matters of that kind. I freely admit that my vote was based more on conscience than on policy. I simply cannot join in once more sacrificing the interests of our POWs in the name of some greater good. Objectively I know that what the Congress did tonight will have little affect on those left behind in Vietnam. I am sure they have long since given up hope of deliverance, and in fact most are by now buried in fields or shallow graves, or stored in warehouses in case the Vietnamese need their bodies for some purpose. What I find unendurable...is the sense that we have today abandoned them again, heaping yet another betrayal on the bones of these honorable men who made the mistake...of trusting us.

"I yield back the balance of my time." [End of Rep. Talent's speech]

Ted W. Guy