News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

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

Re: DPMO Update

Date: May 20, 1998

Defense POW/MIA Weekly Update

POW/MIA FLAG TO BE FLOWN NATIONWIDE

A recently enacted federal law requires that the POW/MIA flag be flown at installations and on specified days across the country. The flag, as cited in this law, is the National League of Families POW/MIA flag.

Armed Forces Day, observed this past weekend, was the first of the specified days on which the flag is to be flown. Other specified days include: Memorial Day; Flag Day; Independence Day; National POW/MIA Day (Sept 18, 1998); and Veterans Day.

The flag is to be flown at the Capitol; the White House; the Korean War Veterans Memorial; the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; each national cemetery; each of the buildings containing the official offices of the Secretary of Defense; the Secretary of State; the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; and the director of the Selective Service System; every major military installation; every VA medical center; and every U. S. post office. In addition to the specified days, the flag is to be flown at VA medical facilities any day the U. S. flag is displayed. At post offices, it is to be flown on the last business day before a specified day.

JOINT OPERATIONS BEGIN IN LAOS

U. S. and Lao Peoples Democratic Republic representatives have begun joint investigations and remains recovery operations pertaining to Americans unaccounted-for in Laos as a result of the war in Southeast Asia. This will be the 38th joint field activity conducted since the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting was formed in January 1992 and the fourth this fiscal year.

Operations are planned for four Lao provinces and are scheduled to last 33 days. The joint team plans to excavate up to nine sites. The U. S. team consists of 43 specialists with experience in remains recovery operations and will be joined by Lao officials. The U. S. team will be led by U. S. Army Lieutenant Colonel James Ransick, commander of JTF-FAÍs detachment 3 in Vientiane.

There are 2,090 Americans still unaccounted-for in Southeast Asia. Of that total, 447 are unaccounted-for in Laos.

REMAINS TURNOVER IN NORTH KOREA DELAYED

Remains believed to be those of two U. S. soldiers killed during the Korean War were recovered in joint operations in North Korea earlier this month. The repatriation of these remains across the Demilitarized Zone at Panmunjom was scheduled for May 15.

However, representatives of the Korean PeopleÍs Army refused to repatriate those remains to the honor guard of the United Nations Command. Since the end of hostilities in 1953, the United Nations Command has received all remains repatriated from North Korea. Korean PeopleÍs Army representatives had agreed in December to continue this procedure for this yearÍs operations. Following DMZ repatriations, caskets containing the remains of American soldiers are covered with a U. S. flag as they are flown home.

The U. S. is currently engaged in discussions to seek a resolution to this problem. VeteransÍ organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion have also expressed their concern to the North Korean mission at the UN in New York. The US recovery team has returned home after securing the remains in sealed containers which are in the temporary custody of North Korean officials. The U. S. archival team which was to have deployed into North Korea last week is still in Beijing, China, awaiting instructions to either enter North Korea or return home. The U. S. seeks to resolve this issue as soon as possible so that the remainder of this yearÍs schedule of four more joint operations can continue.

DPMO INTERVIEWS JAPANESE POWs

Interviewers from DPMOÍs Moscow office, with the help of the Japanese Embassy, have interviewed former Japanese POWs living in Russia, seeking information about possible American POWs.

Two of the Japanese POWs had lived quietly in the Krasnoyarsk area of Siberia. They returned to Japan last month for short visits, and press reports reached the U. S. Each had been held in the Soviet gulag following WWII and after their release had married in Russia and raised families. Neither of the POWs had encountered any Americans in the gulag, but follow-on interviews with other Japanese POWs are scheduled for later this month.