Chairman National Vietnam Veternas Coalition, Inc.
Mr. Chairman, we thank you for the opportunity to testify before this Subcommittee today on a matter of great concern to many Vietnam veterans. The National Vietnam Veterans Coalition is a federation of 79 Vietnam Veterans and veterans issue organizations. The estimated combined underlying membership of these organizations is 350,000. A consensus has developed between these organizations that reform of the Missing Service Personnel Act merits the highest priority objective of our Coalition.
The desired revisions to the law were already passed by Congress and signed into law. Unfortunately, several of these provisions were undercut by new pending legislation. H.R. 4000, the POW/MIA Proetction Act, would re-set the balance and restore what Congress has already mandated.
Each of the sections of H.R. 4000 contains desirable elements. However, I would like to discuss some of the more crucial elements. They are:
SECTION 1505. FOR MISSING PERSONS LAST KNOW OR SUSPECTED OF BEING ALIVE, A BOARD OF REVIEW WILL BE CONVENED EVERY THREE YEAR AFTER THE INITIAL DISAPPEARANCE.
As I will note elsewhere in this testimony, a "mindset to debunk" remains unfortunately active in the assessments of our missing in action. The so-called discrepancy cases are the cutting edge of the overall issue, since they involve the most important cases, literally a matter of life or death. Also, since some of these individuals may still be alive, new information frequently surfaces on the cases.
These case are too important to be casually explained away. Convening frequent hearings, as contemplated by this section, ensures that the focus will be kept on these cases and that they will receive the attention they deserve.
SECTION 106(e): PENALIZES ANY GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL WHO KNOWINGLY AND WILL-FULLY WITHHOLDS INFORMATION RELATED TO THE DISAPPEARANCE, WHEREABOUTS OR STATUS OF A MISSING PERSON FROM HIS CASE FILE.
The sad short of it is that too many POW-MIA families have been lied to by their government. In the past two years, this Subcommittee has heard a procession of family member witnesses testify as to their experiences in being misled, being misrepresented to, having information suppressed, being victimized by changing official stories or gross investigatory negligence, etc. These witnesses, we can assure you from our own knowledge, are only the tip of the iceberg.
Government officials have practiced these cruel deceptions for twenty and thirty years. It is a safe course of action because there are no reprisals. The proposed amendment would force officials to suffer consequences for contunation of such activities. And there should be no objection to the proposal. It is not unreasonable to expect that men and women entrusted with the dealing with bereaved families should tell the truth!
SECTION 1507. PREVENTS A MISSING SERVICE PERSON FROM BEING DECLARED DEAD WITHOUT CREDIBLE PROOF OR REQUIRES THAT IF A BODY IS RECOVERED AND IS NOT IDENTIFIABLE THROUGH VISUAL MEANS, A CERTIFICATION BY A PRACTITIONER OF AN APPROPRIATE FORENSIC SCIENCE THAT THE BODY RECOVERED IS THE MISSING PERSON.
The history of the POW-MIA Issue demonstrates that the government has been all too eager to rack up a "body count" of resolved cases. We have witnessed the paradox of an official "mindset to debunk" that all but automatically rejects any evidence of live prisoners of war in Southeast Asia but which simultaneously resorst to elaborate, flimsy proofs that men classified as discrepancy cases have died.
Further, during the war, mistakes were made in classifying missing service personnel. Nine servicemen were declared dead, but were later repatriated as POWs, according to government testimony before Congress in the early 1970s'. One of these nine had even been purportedly buried in a cemetery in St. Louis five years before he came home.
A good example of the importance of Section 1507 is the recent much-publicized case of Army Master Sergeant Mateo Sabog. The "Stars and Stripes" head-line of last March says it all: "Dead Vietnam Sergeant Surfaced After 25 Years." This story also receive major coverage by the mainstream print and broadcast media.
The Army had declared Sgt. Sabog dead in 1970, some nine years after he stepped off a plane from Vietnam in California enroute to a new assignment at Fort Bragg, NC. He was never heard from again until this year when he turned-up in Georgia applying for Social Security benefits. In April, 1995 the Pentagon had informed his family that remains believed to be Sabog's including teeth, had been turned over by the Vietnamese government.
With the advances in the last decade in forensic science, most notably in DNA testing, it has become far less onerous to require forensic determinations. Once a person is declared dead, all live sighting reports that the person remains alive are dismissed out of hand. Before we write these reports off, we need to be certain.
SECTION 153 (b). PERMITS CIVILIAN DEFENSE DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEES WHO SERVE WITH OR ACCOMPANY THE ARMED FORCES IN THE FIELD UNDER ORDERS WHO BECOME MISSING AS A RESULT OF HOSTILE ACTION TO BE COVERED BY THE ACT.
This is simply fainess. Civilians who serve in a combat zone are often as equally at risk as military personnel. I am personally familiar with several civilian POWs from the Vietnam War. They wre subject to the same abominable conditions and the same torture as their uniformed counterparts. Civilians in combat zones represent the same national interests as do military personnel. They too have families and friends concerned about their fate. They should receive equal consideration from their government.
In summary, the importance of H.R.4000 can best be illustrated by another recent news story. This one in the "New York Times, dated September 8th. Again, with a headline: "New Account Adds to the Mystery About the Fate of American POW's in North Korea."
While I have no first-hand knowledge about the credibility of these recent "sightings" describd in the 6-column stor on page 10, the fact that the New York Times published it confirms, in my opinion, the necessity of H.R. 4000; not just for veterans currently listed as MIAs', but for veterans of future military engagements, who may end up as POWs' or MIAs'.
My organization of over 350,000 members wholeheartedly supports and endorces H.R. 4000, the POW/MIA Protection Act. We thank Congressman Dornan and his 254 co-sponsors for moving forward with this much needed legislation.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to expresss our Coalition's views on this very timely-piece of legislation.