News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

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

Re: NLF July 22nd Update

Date: July 28, 1998

National League of Families
UPDATE LINE: July 22, 1998

Thank you for calling the National League of Families Update Line. This message is recorded on Wednesday, July 22nd. The number of Americans listed as missing from the Vietnam War is now 2,086.

On July 9th, the Department of Defense announced that the Armed Forces Identification Review Board had approved the recommendation of the Central Identification Laboratory that the remains interred in 1984 as the Vietnam War unknown in the Tomb of the Unknowns are those of 1st Lt. Michael J. Blassie, USAF. The remains were identified by mtDNA testing not available in 1984. Prior to the final approval, all reports and recommendations were approved by three outside specialists with recognized expertise in forensic science. On July 7th, the report was provided to Lt. Blassie's mother, and the remains were released to the Air Force for final interment which occurred on July 11th.

The League has urged the Secretary of Defense to place a permanent plaque over the crypt reserved for the Unknown from the Vietnam War to honor all Americans still missing and unaccounted for from that conflict and their sacrifices for our nation. It is hoped that the placement of this plaque will occur on National POW/MIA Recognition Day, September 18th of this year.

On June 30th, the Defense Department announced the names of two Americans whose remains were recently identified by the US Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii. The remains of US Marine Captain John B. Sherman of CT were jointly recovered by a US and Vietnamese team in April and May of 1993. The remains of Army Staff Sergeant Robert F. Preiss, Jr., NY were jointly recovered by US and Lao officials in May of 1995. The League extends to the families and friends of these three servicemen the hope that long-awaited answers bring peace of mind. The accounting for these Americans brings the number still missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War to 2,086, though nearly 85% of the 446 still missing in Laos, and 90% of the 75 unaccounted for in Cambodia, were lost in areas under control of Vietnamese forces during the war.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs Bob Jones recently returned from Southeast Asia, leading a DoD delegation for talks with officials of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The first stop on their ten-day trip was in Vientiane, Laos, where meetings were held with Lao Vice Minister Soubanh, the primary Lao official responsible for POW/MIA accounting and other issues of bilateral importance to the US More than 1,000 reels of archival film from the Vietnam War arrived from Hanoi during Mr. Jones' visit. The film is under review by joint Lao-US archival research officials to determine whether there is any information useful to the accounting effort. On July 28th, joint field operations are to resume in Laos.

The delegation also visited Hanoi for talks with officials there, then went to Da Nang where US and Vietnamese specialists were conducting a joint field operation that is scheduled to conclude soon.

The brief visit to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, included discussions with Co-Prime Minister Hun Sen who pledged, if elected as Prime Minister on July 26th, to continue the full cooperation that has been evident for some time. He also indicated that he would then appoint the Deputy Minister of Defense to head the Cambodian POW/MIA Affairs office.

This was the new DPMO director's first trip as head of a DoD delegation, though he has visited Southeast Asia as assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Hershel Gober during presidential delegations since 1993. The League hopes that this delegation was successful in conveying the need for renewed unilateral efforts by the government of Vietnam to repatriate remains and provide records that could account for hundreds of our missing men.

A team of POW/MIA specialists is now in North Korea to begin joint operations in an effort to recover remains of unaccounted for Americans from the Korean War. Three joint excavations are scheduled for this year, per agreements between the US and North Korea. The other two will take place in August and October, all in Unsan County, North Korea where hundreds of Americans are known to have been lost in combat between US and Chinese forces.

Due to limited staff and funding, it is not possible to send large amounts of public awareness materials. Instead, single copies of current information are available for duplication. The League's web site can be located at pow- miafamilies.org. Though the site is still evolving, there is current factual information now available on-line. For information regarding any matter in this recording, call the League office at 202/223-6846. If no one can take your call, please leave a message with the subject, your name, address, and telephone number.