"KEEPING THE PROMISE TO BRING THE BOYS HOME
KWVA SUPPORTS DPMO MISSION OBJECTIVES
On July 14, 2005, KWVA Director Warren Wiedhahn attended a meeting with Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office in D.C.
The DPMO holds two meetings a year with Voluntary Service Officers to keep them informed of their programs and progress of recovery operations worldwide.
Director Wiedhahn represented both the KWVA and the Chosin Few
On August 16 - 18, the DPMO hosted its third personnel accounting community strategic planning conference to examine policy issues.
BACKGROUND
On November 11, 2004, President George W. Bush said, "We will not rest until we have made the fullest accounting for every life."
He was referring to U. S. servicemen missing from our nation's wars, including 1,827 servicemen missing from the Vietnam War; 8,114 from the Korean War; about 125 from the Cold War spy-related aircraft shoot downs; and, some 78,000 who are still missing from World War II.
Over the years, other presidents, members of Congress, and high government officials have expressed similar sentiments, and a number of commissions and organizations were set up along the way to deal with finding ways to speed up the recovery of our missing personnel.
For over half a century, the results have been less than satisfactory for the families of loved ones who are missing, or believed to be missing.
After all these years, the families still wait!
The Korean War Veterans Association fully supports the ongoing efforts of DPMO and the success of its noble mission to carry out President Bush's promise.
But, more needs to be done at the Presidential level we believe to address the long-unanswered burning question, "What happened to our POWs from the Korean War who were taken to China and Russia and never heard from again?"
Also, the recovery operations in North Korea need to be reinstated, having been suspended last May for security reasons.
This paper provides background information on Korean War and Cold War personnel only and provides comments, hopes and recommendations for the future to bring our boys home.ÊÊÊÊ
RUSSIA
• In 1992, Presidents George H. W. Bush and President Boris Yeltsin established the U. S. Ð Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIA.
• The Commission was formed in response to overwhelming evidence in reports and documents of Americans transferred to the former Soviet Union and its territories.
• The USRJC was tasked with the mission to explore open questions on the fate of men missing from the aforementioned wars.
• The Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office was created to provide direct analytical, investigative and administrative support to the USRJC through the Joint Commission Support Directorate.
• There has been some progress.
• Since 1997, the JCSD researchers have retrieved more than 45,000 pages from military archives at Podolsk, Russia, clarifying the fates of some 269 U. S. airmen who were shot down during the Korean War.
• Still unresolved, however, is the fate of unknown number of Korean War POWs, possibly more than 1,000, who may have been transported to the former Soviet Union for forced labor.
• Yet, as has been the case since the July 27, 1953 truce in Korea, there have been only denials and official silence on this matter from both governments.Ê
Meanwhile, the families of these men wait!
NORTH KOREA
• On April 15, 1969, North Korean fighter aircraft shot down a U. S. Navy EC-121 aircraft carrying a crew of 31 over the Sea of Japan. U. S. Navy ships recovered two sets of remains.
• On November 29, 1952, a C-47 aircraft crashed in Manchuria.
• Two U. S. agents were taken alive, two pilots died in the crash and one set of remains were recovered and identified and thirty-one men remain unaccounted for.
• In October 2003, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command was created.
• The organization stems from merging the U. S. Army Central Identification Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii with the 11-year-old Joint Task Force Ð Full Accounting who had been effectively operating as one since August 2002.
• Since 1996, special Joint Field Activity teams have searched battlefields in the Republic of Korea and Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and as of July 13, 2005, had repatriated 226 sets of remains, of which 24 have been identified.
• Remains repatriated through unilateral operations have yielded 208 sets of remains between 1990 and 1994, of which 51 sets of remains have been identified.
• As of July 13, 2005, a total of 8,114 Americans remain unaccounted for or unidentified.
• Last May, the Pentagon suspended recovery operations in North Korea, accusing Pyongyang of creating an atmosphere that threatened the safety of American workers.
• The move came at a time of friction between the United States and the DPRK over its nuclear and missile programs.
• Some believe that the recent flap did not come from the Pentagon, rather it was a State Department/White House measure to put pressure on North Korea as six-part talks were going on between Russia, China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan and the United States.
So, the families wait!
CHINA
• During the Korean War, American POWs were sent to China and an unknown number of them remain there, died there or possibly were sent to the Soviet Union.
• In May of this year, for the first time ever under official Chinese government sponsorship, DPMO analysts and researchers visited a museum on the Korean War in Dandong and the People Liberation Army's Publishing House where they collected 4,000 pages of publications on the Korean War.
• Last February, American and Chinese participants coordinated final preparations for accounting operations that occurred in May and June to search for a recover remains in Tibet from World War II as well as for Korean War and Cold War losses in other parts of China.
• Yet, as has been the case since the July 27, 1953 truce in Korea, both governments have remained silent with respect to the matter of POWs transported to the former USSR.ÊÊ
Meanwhile, the families of these men wait!
HOPES FOR THE FUTURE
While it would be presumptuous for the KWVA to dictate policy, we do agree with a broad spectrum of opinions from various veterans and family groups that more needs to be done in the next several years at the Presidential level between the former Cold War enemies than has been the case for the last 50+ years in order to accelerate recovery operations in Russia, China and North Korea.
The families have waited far too long and they need to get a full and truthful accounting finally as to the fate of their loved ones, who presumably had been taken to China and the former Soviet Union as POWs.
Here are some thoughts, collected from a variety of sources:
RUSSIA
• The U. S. and Russia governments should agree at the presidential level to increase Russian cooperation by hiring Russian generals who have the proper clearance to get into the former GRU files.
• Inasmuch as the GRU files are highly sensitive in nature, the Russians undoubtedly would not release such data.
• However, the Russians need only to pass on information as to the identity of Americans sent to the former USSR as well as any mortuary data.
CHINA
• China has been provided lists in the past by the Department of Defense, but to date the Peoples Republic of China has not replied.
• Inasmuch as the files are highly sensitive in nature, the Chinese undoubtedly would not release such data.
• However, China need only to pass on information as to the identity of Americans sent to the former USSR as well as any mortuary data.
NORTH KOREA
• The U. S. unilaterally should remove the security issue that caused the recent suspension of remains recovery in North Korea after 10 successful years of operation as a humanitarian mission.
CONCLUSION
The anguish of family members who have lost loved ones in Korea has gone on entirely too long.
There must be closure!
President George W. Bush and the Administration must find better ways to convince the leaders of our former enemies to open up their archives fully and completely and to provide our government with lists of Americans imprisoned in their countries.Ê
The families have waited much too long.
Bring the boys home dead or alive!
But bring them home.
Martin J. O'Brien
POW-MIA Coordinator
Korean War Veterans Association
www.kwva.org"