News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci
(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: DPMO Update

Date: April 15, 1998

Defense POW/MIA Weekly Update

DPMO OFFICIALS DISCUSS REMAINS STUDY WITH VIETNAMESE

On 8-9 April 1998, representatives from DPMO met for the fourth time with members of the Vietnamese Office for Seeking Missing Persons, (VNOSMP), to discuss Vietnam's handling of U.S. remains. The talks, held in Hanoi, were frank, candid, and constructive. The U.S. provided feedback on the results of Vietnamese unilateral investigations on remains issues, and the Vietnamese pledged to continue to investigate additional questions on a priority basis. The two sides discussed the history of Vietnam's program to recover U.S. remains. Members of the VNOSMP clarified the roles of the organizations involved and elaborated on how the process worked. The VNOSMP turned over eight documents that contained new and useful information on U.S. casualties and the condition of their remains and graves. Some of these cover losses in provinces from which we had not previously seen any reporting. The Vietnamese repeatedly stressed their commitment to answer questions on remains, and both sides agreed that additional queries would be passed in the near future.

NATIONAL POW MUSEUM OPENS IN GEORGIA

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense J. Alan Liotta attended the dedication of the National Prisoner of War Museum in Andersonville, Georgia, was dedicated on April 9, 1998. The museum details the sacrifices of all POWs in American history, from the Revolutionary War to the Gulf War, attempting to accurately chronicle the plight of the POW. Senator John McCain, former Vietnam War prisoner of war, was the guest speaker.

Exhibits in the new museum depict the struggles of American POWs as they resist capture, endure torture and desolation, deal with the deprivation of confinement, and for those who survived captivity, their release and return to their loved ones. Andersonville is the site of a former Confederate prisoner of war camp housing Union soldiers captured during the Civil War. A national cemetery is located adjacent to the National POW Museum.

ARCHIVAL RESEARCH ACTIVITIES UPDATE

In the past two weeks, DPMO researchers reviewed archival holdings at the U.S. Air Force Casualty Office, the Air Intelligence Agency, both in San Antonio, and at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis for information pertaining to Korean War casualties. This review of documents is part of an extensive program to search archival holdings worldwide to gather data to help refine the information contained in the "Persons Missing Ü Korea," (PMKOR), and Korean War Aircraft Loss databases.

The archivists were able to locate copies of findings of death for Korean War prisoners of war and missing in action, aircraft loss data, selected unit histories, and other casualty details for Air Force, Navy, and Marine aviators. Over 1.5 million documents were reviewed. The information found in these documents allow the analysts to develop a better and more thorough understanding of the circumstances surrounding each loss.