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To: ALL
From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci
(POW-MIA InterNetwork)
Re: Dumas Case Letters
Date: November 05, 2000
For moe on the Dumas case, please visit Last Seen Alive at -
http://www.lastseenalive.com/
PENTAGON DITCHES EVIDENCE IN KOREAN WAR POW CASE
DUMAS CASE LETTERS FROM SEN. LIEBERMAN AND DASD ROBERT JONES
United States Senate
Washington, D.C.20510
March 2, 2000
Mr. Robert Dumas
20 Howe Road
Canterbury, CT 06331
Dear Mr. Dumas,
Enclosed is a copy of the response I have received, dated February 25, 2000, from Robert L. Jones, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs, concerning your brother, Corporal Roger A. Dumas.
I have reviewed Deputy Assistant Secretary Jones’ response carefully. I note his comment that his staff and the Army casualty office have worked extensively with you, and that DOD officials have personally raised your brother’s case in meetings with Chinese, Russian and North Korean officials, in a direct effort to obtain information regarding your brother.
DOD maintains that the government has uncovered no evidence that would indicate that your brother "was ever captured and held prisoner by communist forces during the Korean War," and that your brother, "like many of the more than 8,200 Americans whose remains have never been recovered from that war, has a PFOD based upon the preponderance of available evidence to include a buffer period."
I understand and admire your devotion to your brother and your determination to account for him. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I take my oversight role seriously and will continue to monitor DOD’s efforts to reach a full accounting for Roger and all missing Americans.
DOD officials are clearly very familiar with your efforts and I believe the agency has done its best to assist you to the full extent possible. However, DOD asserts its finding that the evidence does not exist to support your belief that your brother has been a prisoner in Korea since 1950. If further information is found by DOD and communicated to me, rest assured I will notify you. At this time, I can take no further action in this matter.
Best regards,
Sincerely,
Joe Lieberman
Enclosure
JIL:sdh
OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
2400 DEFENSE PENTAGON
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20301-2400
23 FEB. 2000
Honorable Joseph I. Lieberman
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510-0703
Dear Senator Lieberman,
Thank you for your February 8, 2000 letter to Assistant Secretary Veroneau on behalf of Mr. Robert Dumas. Mr. Dumas’ brother, Army Corporal Roger Armand Dumas, was lost during the Korean War, and his body has never been recovered. Mr. Dumas believes his brother is behind held as a Prisoner of War (POW) in North Korea and requests that the family be awarded retroactively all of his military pay and allowances, as well as the accrued interest on that amount. Your letter was forwarded to me because I am responsible for Department of Defense (DoD) efforts to account for Americans missing from our Nation’s wars. I am pleased to provide you the following information regarding the case of Corporal Dumas, but I point out that it is not within my agency’s purview to render judgment on any financial claims and/or compensation being sought by Mr. Dumas or any other family member.
Regrettably, like so many of our missing from the Korean War, there is little reliable information regarding the loss of Corporal Dumas. He was a member of C Company, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, when he was reported missing on November 5, 1950. At the time of his loss, Corporal Dumas’ unit was engaged with enemy forces near the town of Anju, North Korea. It was not until December 18, 1951, that the Chinese and North Koreans provided their first systematic accounting of United Nation POWs, and their list did not include Corporal Dumas’ name. This list and subsequent POW lists provided by the communists were incomplete; however, when errors were noted they were usually explainable. Nonetheless, at the war’s conclusion, all American POW returnees were debriefed for information relating to missing Americans. The "Missing in Action, Captivity" report compiled from returning POWs does not include Corporal Dumas’s name. Again, this list is imperfect, but combined with the POW lists provided by the communists, these reports remain the most accurate method of identifying Americans held in captivity. Having no information to the contrary, the Army issued a presumptive finding of death (PFOD) on Corporal Dumas, as of February 26, 1954.
In 1955, Corporal Dumas’ mother filed suit with the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United States claiming her son was held as a POW. Three POW returnees supported her claim that Corporal Dumas was indeed a POW, although they had not done so in 1953 when the "Missing in Action, Captivity" report was compiled. As a result of this new information, the Commission found there to be sufficient evidence to support a determination that Corporal Dumas was a POW for 120 days, and that his family should be awarded compensation for that period of time. Following his mother’s death, Corporal Dumas’ brother, Robert, became administrator of her estate. Based on his mother’s 1955 claim, Robert Dumas filed a similar suit in a Federal district court and before the Army Board for Correction of Military Records. In 1986, the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission made a determination that Corporal Dumas was a POW not just for 120 days, but effectively through the end of hostilities and up to his PFOD. Based on this decision, the mother’s estate was awarded compensation for the entire period.
It is important to emphasize that the decisions made by the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission notwithstanding, neither my agency nor any other Government agency has uncovered evidence, other than that which was solicited by Corporal Dumas’ family, to indicate that he was ever captured and held prisoner by communist forces during the Korean War. Nonetheless, we acknowledge Corporal Dumas’ status as an adjudicated POW for the period of his captivity until his PFOD.
Corporal Dumas was initially listed as missing in action and reclassified as a POW pursuant to court order. However, there is no separate body of evidence that he survived the end of hostilities and the repatriation period that ended in September 1953. In spite of this, Mr. Dumas has, for several years, requested that his brother’s status as a POW be reactivated and his family awarded back pay. Lacking a specific date of death, Corporal Dumas, like many of the more than 8,200 Americans whose remains have never been recovered from that war, has a PFOD based upon the preponderance of available evidence to include a buffer period.
My staff and the staff of the Army casualty office have worked extensively with Mr. Dumas concerning his brother’s case. We have provided him with all documents that relate to his case. In response to Mr. Dumas’ personal requests, we have raised has brother’s case during our meetings with Chinese, Russian and North Korean officials. I have personally raised Mr. Dumas’ concerns with Chinese officials during my delegations to China. Additionally, following testimony before a 1998 hearing by the House Military Personnel Subcommittee in which Mr. Dumas was a witness, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Walter B. Slocombe addressed Mr. Dumas’ concerns to the Under Secretary’s counterparts within the Chinese Ministry of Defense. Despite these efforts, no new information regarding Corporal Dumas has been uncovered. Copies of Secretary Slocombe’s and my trip reports were provided to Mr. Dumas through the Army casualty office.
The pursuit of live American POWs is my agency’s number one priority. We continue to press the governments of North Korea, China and Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Russia to assist us in our efforts to account for Americans who are missing from World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War and the Vietnam War. In addition to diplomacy, we use all possible means and methods to investigate the possibility of American POWs remaining alive in North Korea, China, the former Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc countries, as well as the countries of Southeast Asia where the Vietnam War was fought. Despite our efforts, we have uncovered no credible evidence that Americans are in captivity as POWs anywhere in the world. We also have been unable to prove speculation that American POWs were transferred to the former Soviet Union.
DoD is dedicated to accounting for our countrymen who are unaccounted for from the Korean War. We knew at the time of their losses, and the records we have since acquired substantiate, that almost half of the servicemen who are missing from the Korean War were either killed in action or died in captivity during the war. Many of those killed in action were buried either in temporary graves that were later overrun or were lost unobserved. For those men who died in captivity, we know where some were buried, but we do not know the burial location of others.
Since a formal peace treaty ending the Korean War has never been signed, our Government pressed the North Koreans, through the United Nations Command, for increased cooperation in the repatriation of American remains. Between 1990 and 1994, we experienced some progress, and the North Koreans repatriated more than 200 remains believed to be American war dead. However, since we have been able to identify only seven of these remains, we requested the North Koreans to discontinue their unilateral recovery operations. We knew that the greatest chances of successfully recovering and identifying the remains of our countrymen would be realized only if we participate in the physical recovery process.
In 1996, we reached an agreement with the government of North Korea to conduct joint recovery operations. Since then, we have completed 12 joint recovery operations in North Korea and we have recovered the remains of 42 American servicemen. The remains of three of these men have been identified and returned to their families for burial with honor. In addition to our recovery operations, we have gained access to North Korea’s central military museums for archival research purposes. We are hopeful these efforts, and those we perform in the future, will yield information on many of our lost men, to include Corporal Dumas. Nevertheless, because North Korea remains an isolationist country and is still in a state of war with our ally, South Korea, our accounting efforts remain on precarious ground.
I wish Mr. Dumas to know that we are steadfast in our commitment to accounting for his brother. The fact that we have sent American military and government personnel into North Korea to conduct difficult investigations is, in itself, testimony to our Government’s resolve to find, bring home, and honor our brave service members whose contributions to world peace we have not forgotten.
Your continued support for our efforts to provide the fullest possible accounting is appreciated. I hope this information is helpful in responding to your constituent. Should you have further questions, please contact my office.
Sincerely,
Robert L. Jones
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
(POW/Missing Personnel Affairs)
Cc: Army casualty office
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