News-Info-Alerts

Re: Repatriation Ceremony

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: February 19, 2003

"Feb. 19, 2003
RELEASE NO. #03-05

REPATRIATION CEREMONY

CAMP H.M. SMITH, Hawaii – Remains believed to be associated with three cases of unaccounted-for American servicemen in Laos and one in Cambodia will arrive home to American soil Friday, Feb. 21. A joint honor guard will commemorate their arrival in a ceremony 9 a.m., Hickam Air Force Base outside the 15th Air Base Wing base operations building.

Following the arrival ceremony, the remains will be transported to the U.S. Army’s Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii (CILHI) where the forensic identification process will begin.

Military and civilian members who recovered the remains during recent search and recovery missions include personnel from Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA) and the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory.

Ann Mills Griffiths, Director of the National League of POW/MIA Families and Jo Anne Shirley, Chairman of the National League of POW/MIA Families were in attendance for the departure ceremony in Laos.

The missions are part of an on-going effort to provide the fullest possible accounting for American service members still missing or unaccounted-for as a result of the Vietnam War. There are currently 1,889 Americans still unaccounted-for in Southeast Asia – 1,444 in Vietnam, 381 in Laos, 56 in Cambodia, and eight in the territorial waters of China.
MEDIA NOTES: For media access to Hickam

* Call Hickam Media Relations at (808) 449-6367 before 4 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 19
* Media escorts will depart from the Hickam front gate at 8:15 a.m., Friday, Feb. 21
* JTF-FA Public Affairs contact is Captain Gina Jackson (808) 477-5301
* CILHI Public Affairs contact is Ginger Couden (808) 448-8903 x 109
* For more information on the Full Accounting mission go to www.pacom.mil/jtffa.htm or www.cilhi.army.mil

WE NEED YOUR HELP: Today’s technology allows us to identify some remains through mitochondrial DNA. If you know of a family member who is from the maternal bloodline of an unaccounted-for serviceperson, please ask them to contact the military services to provide a blood sample at U.S. Army: (800) 982-2490; U.S. Air Force: (800) 531-5501; U.S. Navy: (800) 443-9298; U.S. Marine Corps: (800) 847-1597. "