News-Info-Alerts

Re: Body of Brother Belongs At Home

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: February 04, 2003

"Kay McMahan and her husband, park ranger Bruce McMahan, are hopeful that the remains of her brother, Orville K. Spicer, will be located eventually. Spicer was 18 when he died in 1950 in North Korea.

Body of brother belongs at home

Woman active in efforts to reclaim Korean casualties

By Stephanie L. Jordan Caller-Times

Rockport resident Kay McMahan knows only a few things about her brother's death.

Orville K. Spicer died in 1950. He was 18. And his remains are somewhere in North Korea.

But what she doesn't know is when he'll be laid to rest on his native soil.

The 57-year-old McMahan isn't giving up on her brother being found and returned, even though talks of nuclear weapons has increased the tension between the U.S. and North Korean governments.

For McMahan, it's about bringing home her brother. But for the Korean government, she surmises, it's all about money.

"You've got to remember that they make millions every time we go over there," McMahan said. "But North Koreans are very difficult to make agreements with."
To supply DNA

For more information on how to supply DNA of lost military members, contact one of the following numbers:
* Air Force: (800) 531-5501
* Army: (800) 892-2490
* Navy: (800) 443-9298
* Marine Corps: (800) 847-1597
* U.S. State Department: (202) 736-4988

Adrian Cronauer, special assistant to the director of the Pentagon's POW/MIA office, said that although the governments sometimes clash, those involved in trying to arrange recovery missions stay focused on their tasks.

"When we go there to negotiate getting teams into the country, we do not talk with them about anything but recovery," said Cronauer, an Air Force veteran who served during the Vietnam War. The movie "Good Morning, Vietnam" was based loosely on Cronauer's experiences as a wartime radio disc jockey from 1965 to 1966.

"We are very, very deliberate that our missions in North Korea are humanitarian," he said.

The Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii, at Hickam Air Force Base, coordinates the recovery missions. Since 1996, officials have performed many missions, most on land located about 60 miles north of the city of Pyongyang. At least 100 sets of remains have been recovered.

The Korean People's Army provides assistance to the American teams during recovery missions, making the missions a joint operation.

North Korea presents a unique challenge in terms of cultural issues to consider when jointly conducting an excavation. In most cases, communication is channeled through an American military interpreter and communication is then only permitted between the highest-ranking U.S. official and the highest-ranking Korean Army official. Cronauer said that the Korean Army official is usually at the rank of colonel.

Defense Department officials hope that the recovery missions of service members' remains will continue regardless of what happens politically between the two countries, which still haven't signed a peace treaty 50 years after the war.

"We have de-linked the remains recovery from any other issues," said Lt. Cmdr. Paul Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. "We don't want it to be caught up in the political issue of the day."

But there is still a long way to go. There are still more than 8,100 service members unaccounted for from the Korean War. Of that total, it is estimated that there are approximately 5,100 in North Korea.

McMahan is certain her brother is one of them. She knows that he was part of three groups near a river that were attacked unexpectedly by the North Koreans. When the bodies were recovered after the battle, three soldiers were unaccounted for - one of whom was her brother.

"He could have been taken prisoner in a death camp," McMahan said. "We've just started excavating at the death camps."

Fortunately, Spicer's family is able to donate mitochondrial DNA. What's difficult for military officials is finding family members able to submit these types of DNA samples, which are passed down only through the maternal side, cutting down on the number of possible donors to make a match.

McMahan has never lost hope that her brother will be found. And she doesn't want anyone else to give up, either.

"As long as there is anyone over there, we can't quit," McMahan said. "I'll never quit. I'll wait for him to come home until the day I die."

Contact Stephanie L. Jordan at 886-3724 or_jordans@caller.com

© 2003 Texas Scripps Newspapers, L.P. A Scripps Howard newspaper."