May 2000
Summary of news for the entire month.
For recent and daily news, please go to: InterNetwork
00 MAY 00: 2,021 Americans remain unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War: ARMY: 639 (VN-10, VS-488; LA-106; CB-35; CH-0); NAVY: 412 (VN-281, VS-92; LA-28; CB-3; CH/OW-8); USMC: 256 (VN-24, VS-203; LA-21; CB-8; CH-0); USAF: 674 (VN-232; VS-165; LA-260; CB-17; CH-0); and CG: 1 (VN-0; VS-1; LA-0; CB-0; CH-0). 39 civilians remain unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War: VS-22, LA-12, and CB-5. 562 Americans have been accounted-for post 1973: VN-405, LA-142, CB-13, and CH-2. 193 Americans have been accounted-for during the present administrations. PURSUIT STATUS: Further Pursuit: 1,177 (VN-247; VS-502; LA-373; CB-51; CH-4). Deferred: 202 (VN-60; VS-111; LA-28; CB-2; CH-1). No Further Pursuit: 642 (VN-240; VS-358; LA-26; CB-15; CH-3). Persian Gulf War - unsatisfactory accounting. Korean War - 8,139 remain unaccounted-for, 42 possible remains returned, 4 identifications. World War II - Over 78,000 remain unaccounted-for.
01 MAY 00: Vietnam: Silencing of Dissent (New York, May 3, 2000)&Mac247; Human Rights Watch said today that Vietnam's human rights performance continues to fall far short of international standards, despite economic and social changes since the late 1980's. In a new 34-page report, "Vietnam: Silencing of Dissent," Human Rights Watch details how the Socialist Republic of Vietnam continues to harass, isolate, place under house arrest, and sometimes imprison its critics. Among those singled out are senior party leaders calling for political reforms, long-time critics from the academic community, members of the press, and religious leaders whom the government fears may be able to attract large followings.
02 MAY 00: Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs Robert L. Jones and Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia met to discuss issues concerning POW/MIA affairs as they relate to Cambodia. One issue, in particular, was information concerning the discovery of government documents belonging to the Council of Ministers that dated from the 1980s. Upon request by DASD Jones, Prime Minister Hun Sen gave permission for DPMO to carry out archival research in the National Archives of Cambodia for America's unaccounted-for personnel from the hostilities in Southeast Asia. The major emphasis of the archival visit was the review of 260 boxes of Council of Minister documents in the Cambodian archives. These boxes contained almost 21,000 pages of historical and archival documents mainly originating from the provinces of Cambodia. During the course of an intense archival review, the "Deeds" document was discovered. Approximately 50 articles of interest were copied and translated and are now being passed to DPMO analysts for review. In addition, 13 black and white photographs about North Vietnam activity and scenes of alleged wartime losses of American aircraft were found. One Cambodian government document found in the National Archives of Cambodia revealed that an American, Michael Deeds, was taken to the notorious Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison, tortured, and then executed during the last days of the Khmer Rouge government regime in Cambodia in 1979. He was then buried behind Tuol Sleng. Deeds was one of four Americans allegedly killed while possibly smuggling marijuana from Thailand when their ship went off course and ended up in Cambodian waters where they were boarded by Khmer Rouge and captured.
03 MAY 00: The League, Korean and Cold War family representatives and veterans organizations met on May 3rd at the Defense POW/MIA Office for a briefing on the Mission Area Analysis, or MAA, being conducted by an outside consulting firm. Under contract to DPMO, this firm has an October deadline for producing its assessment on a range of questions developed by DPMO on personnel recovery in the future and accounting for US personnel lost in past wars. DASD Bob Jones has described the MAA as a transition document in anticipation of the November presidential election. The National League of Families will be holding their 31st Annual Meeting June 22nd-24th at the Washington Marriott Hotel. The National Alliance of Families will be holding their 11th Annual Forum June 22nd-24th at the Wyndham Hotel, Washington, DC
04 MAY 00: Effective June 30, 2000, the postal service will destroy the stock of the 32-cent POW/MIA "dogtag" stamp. To order from the remaining stock call 1-800-782-6724 or online at: www.stampsonline.com
05 MAY 00: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sydney Schanberg whose accounts of the atrocities of the Pol Pot led Khmer Rouge and their Killing Fields, has begun writing on the POW-MIA issue again. His current piece, beginning with, "The War Records A Senator Doesn't Want You To See" is reminiscent of articles past and raises some serious questions about abuse of power in Congress and government. A must read, please go to - http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/indepth/pow/index.html
06 MAY 00: Korean War Commemoration Opening Ceremony WASHINGTON, DC -- On Sunday, June 25, 2000 at 4:00 p.m. the Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen will host the opening ceremony for the 50th Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration at the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the Mall. President Clinton is the scheduled keynote speaker for the ceremony. This event marks the official start of the 50th Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration period, which runs through Nov. 11, 2003. The purpose of the Commemoration is to thank and honor Korean War Veterans and their families; especially those who lost loved ones in that war. Other members of the official program include the Republic of Korea's Ambassador to the United States, The Honorable Hong-Koo Lee, Senator John Glenn, a distinguished Korean War Veteran and Ms. Connie Stevens who entertained the American troops with the USO during the Korean War. Transportation to and from the event will be provided from the Pentagon North parking lot and from the Pentagon Metro bus platform. Shuttle busses from the Pentagon to the event will run continuously from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. Return shuttle bus service will begin after the ceremony at approximately 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Korean War Veterans, their families and the general public are invited to attend the opening ceremony. Use of the available shuttle bus service and Pentagon parking is encouraged.
Other Korean War commemorative events open to the public this year include:
June 14 - Korean War Veterans Parade - U.S. Marine Corps Barracks, 8th and I Street, Washington, D.C.
June 25 - Wreath Laying Ceremony - Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.
June 28 - Task Force Smith - Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.
July 5 - Task Force Smith - Osan, Republic of Korea
July 26 - Twilight Tattoo - Ellipse, Washington, D.C.
Sept. 13 - Pusan Breakout - Waegwan, Republic of Korea
Sept. 15 - Inchon Landing - Inchon, Republic of Korea
Sept. 15 - 17 Breakout of the Pusan Perimeter and Inchon Landing - Norfolk, Va.
Nov. 11 - Northern Campaigns - Seoul, Republic of Korea
Nov. 11 - Nations Parade - New York, N.Y.
Dec. 7 - Chosin (Changjin) Reservoir Campaign - Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Dec. 12 - Hungnam Redeployment and Evacuation - Navy Memorial, Washington, D.C.
For more information about the 50th Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration, call 703-604-0831 or visit the web site at http://korea50.army.mil/
Another commemoration is the anniversary of D-Day and the opening of the National D-Day Museum. Please visit - http://www.ddaymuseum.org/
07 MAY 00: Security Council members expressed deep concern at the plight of Kuwaitis missing since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of the emirate and called on Baghdad to cooperate with the U.N. official trying to determine their fate. The statement was read to reporters by council President Robert Fowler of Canada after closed-door consultations on a recent report on the efforts of the U.N. coordinator for missing Kuwaitis and Kuwaiti property, Russian diplomat Yuli Vorontsov. Kuwait says about 605 people, including 550 Kuwaitis and the rest of various nationalities, have been missing since the Iraqi invasion. Iraq denies it is holding any Kuwaiti prisoners of war or detainees. Kuwait also says Iraq still has a considerable amount of Kuwaiti property, including state archives.
08 MAY 00: We have received an enormous amount email requesting the procedure for returning a POW-MIA bracelet to the family. The following is the correct procedure for returning a POW MIA bracelet to the family of an accounted-for POW-MIA.
1. Write a letter to the family of the POW-MIA servicemember. Please make sure to include all contact information in the event the family chooses to contact you.
2. Place the letter to the family and the bracelet in an envelope. Write your return address and simply address the envelope:
To The Family Of (Servicemember's Name)
3. Place double postage on the envelope and seal it.
4. Write a letter to the Defense Prisoner and Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) and in the letter explain that this is a bracelet return and request that the contents be forwarded to the family.
5. Place the DPMO request letter and the To The Family Of envelope inside another envelope and address it to -
Department of Defense, Defense Prisoner Of War/Missing Personnel Office 2400 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-2400 Attention Mr. Chuck Henley/POW MIA Bracelet Return
Any questions may be directed to Mr. Henley at - 703-602-2102/extension 160
09 MAY 00: From the NLF Update Line - "Although the name still has not been released by the Defense Department, one US Air Force officer, previously missing in North Vietnam, has been accounted for. His remains were jointly recovered and repatriated November 6, 1998. The accounting for this American brings the number still missing to 2,028, 1,518 in Vietnam. Nearly 85% of the 428 missing in Laos and the 74 unaccounted for in Cambodia were lost in areas under Vietnamese wartime control. There are also 8 in the territorial waters of the PRC. Several more identifications are expected in the coming weeks."
10 MAY 00: "To all concerned about S-484 (Bring Them Home Alive Act). I called Senator Abraham's office about the procedural status of S-484 . His aid, Tyler White, told me that the Bill is not going to be marked up in the Immigration Subcommittee. It will go straight to the Full Judiciary Committee for mark-up. He said what remains to be done is for Senators Campbell (original sponsor) and Hatch (Chair of Judiciary) to get together and decide what they want to do with the Bill during mark-up in the Judiciary Committee. Tyler assured me that Senator Abraham supports the Bill and that it is not being tied up in the Immigration Sub-committee. I have a call into Senator Campbell's office to confirm this information and to get some idea what course the Bill will take at this point. Sincerely, Donna Knox (Coalition of Families)"
11 MAY 00: Hollyweird does it again. Over the years Hollywood has bought the rights to Ex-POWs stories and then proceeded to make (in most cases) an idiotic, romanticized account of the events described. In other instances it has outright claimed to own certain titles and names, a glaring example was the Bridge Over The River Kwai incident in 1997 when Return From the River Kwai was banned from US distribution because producers had failed to secire permission to use the words "River Kwai" - see http://www.aiipowmia.com/faxnet/fxkwai727.html Now the brouhaha is over the planned filming of an Ex-POWs experience in the infamous Colditz Castle. The film, based on the memoirs of Briton Pat Reid who escaped Colditz is slated to show Americans as central escapees, notably Tom Cruise, Matt Damon and Ben Afleck, when in fact, only 18 men, six each from the Netherlands, Great Britain and France survived their escape to make it to Allied lines. The other escapees, who were caught and punished, were Polish and Belgian nationals. Surviving Colditz Castle Ex-POWs from Europe are appealing to Hollywood to interview survivors and incorporate a sense of 'reality' in the film.
12 MAY 00: Memorial Day At Arlington
Arlington National Cemetery - http://www.arlingtoncemetery.com
As in the past, Memorial Day services will be held at the Memorial Amphitheater in Arlington National Cemetery. This year, like many others in the past, the President of the United States is scheduled to appear. The President will be laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and then will address the nation in the Amphitheater. ,These services are open to the public and are tentatively scheduled to begin at 1000 hours on Memorial Day. Should you plan on attending, please plan on arriving early (the Cemetery opens to the public at 0800 hours) since seating in the Amphitheater is limited and due to the additional security surrounding the President's visit. If you can't attend, please stop for a moment and remember all of those heroes who sacrifices so much for the freedoms that we all enjoy today.
13 MAY 00: Reverand Jesse Jackson's mission to release the American POWs held in Kosovo takes on a new light. In a Harvard Current interview, Jackson suggests the USG may have used exceptioanlly heavy bombing to halt his mission of mercy. He said, "First night we were there, the bombing intensified -- as if there was an attempt to intimidate us." It goes on - "Jackson alleged that U.S. officials gave him the cold shoulder following the release of the POWs, and actually tried to keep the soldiers, Staff Sgt. Andrew Ramirez, Staff Sgt. Christopher Stone and Spc. Steven Gonzales, away from him and his group of American religious leaders: "We got there and they took the soldiers out one end of the plane. Did not give us a chance to tell them goodbye." The entire interview (not all of it POW-MIA related and at times inflammatory) may be read at - http://www.thinkcurrent.com/current/jackson.pdf and requires an Adobe Acrobat Reader which is free.
14 MAY 00: MAGAZINE ARTICLE The June 2000 issue of VIETNAM magazine has a very good article on: ISAAC CAMACHO: FIRST AMERICAN POW ESCAPEE.
15 MAY 00: The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh held a private memorial service to remember 18 U.S. servicemen who died on May 15, 1975, in an ill-fated attempt to rescue 39 American crewmen on the merchant marine vessel Mayaguez from a Cambodian island. About two- dozen Americans attended the memorial at the U.S. ambassador's residence, on the grounds of which stands a stone monument to the 18 Marines and another U.S. soldier killed in action in Cambodia in 1971. Several at the gathering are stationed in Cambodia to recover remains of the fallen Marines, a painstaking task that has so far resulted in the positive identification of one American MIA.
16 MAY 00: DOD announced that one American, listed as MIA in North Vietnam on March 7, 1966, had been identified. The remains of COL Harold V. Smith, USAF, from IL, were jointly recovered and repatriated November 6, 1998. Smith was leading a four-aircraft attack against enemy surface-to-air missile sites in Thanh Hoa Province, North Vietnam, on March 7, 1966, when he disappeared. When the flight reformed after the attack, Smith's plane failed to rejoin the group. Other members of the flight searched the area, but couldn't find him. U.S. and Vietnamese investigators interviewed potential witnesses and searched again in 1993, 1994 and 1995, but neither the crash site nor human remains were found. Then in 1996, the Vietnamese government helped U.S. investigators find an informant who led them to the burial.
17 MAY 00: "IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 17, 2000 No. 255-00"
MISSING IN ACTION SERVICEMAN IDENTIFIED An Air Force officer missing in action from the Vietnam War has been accounted for and his remains are being returned to his family for burial in the United States. He is identified as Col. Harold V. Smith of Bridgeport, Ill. On March 7, 1966, Smith was leading a four-aircraft attack mission against enemy surface-to-air missile sites in Thanh Hoa Province, North Vietnam. When the flight reformed after the attack run, Smith's F-105D Thunderchief failed to rejoin the group. Other members of the flight conducted a visual and electronic search of the area with no results. Teams of U.S. and Socialist Republic of Vietnam investigators, led by the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, interviewed potential witnesses and conducted local searches in 1993, 1994 and 1995, but neither the crash site nor human remains were found as a result of these investigations. Then in 1996 the Vietnamese government provided U.S. investigators with documents relating to their unilateral investigation of the case. Following leads from those documents, a joint team interviewed an informant who led them to a burial site which was excavated August-September 1998. There, the team recovered personal effects, pilot-related artifacts as well as human remains. With the accounting of Smith, 2,028 Americans remain missing in action from the Vietnam War. Another 555 have been identified and returned to their families since the end of the war. Analysis of the remains and other evidence by the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii established the identification of this serviceman. The U.S. government welcomes and appreciates the cooperation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam that resulted in the accounting of Smith. We hope that such cooperation will bring increased results in the future. Achieving the fullest possible accounting of Americans missing in action is of the highest national priority. "
18 MAY 00: DOD announced today that the remains of six US Marine Corps personnel, previously unaccounted for from the attempted rescue of the Mayaguez crew on May 15, 1975, had been identified. Those identified are LCpl Gregory S. Copenhaver from MD, LCpl Andres Garcia from NM, PFC Walter Boyd of VA, and PFC Kelton Turner from CA. The names of two Marines are being withheld at the request of their families. Between 1991 and 1999, US, Cambodian and Vietnamese personnel conducted seven joint investigations, and on three occasions, Cambodian officials unilaterally turned over remains believed to be those of Americans associated with this incident. In October and November 1995, US and Cambodian specialists conducted an underwater recovery operation. The identifications, made by the US Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, used extensive mtDNA technology to aid in determining those identified.
19 MAY 00: "IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 18, 2000 No. 260-00"
MIA MARINES IDENTIFIED FROM MAYAGUEZ INCIDENT Six Marines missing in action from the Vietnam War have been accounted for and their remains are being returned to their families for burial in the United States. They are identified as Lance Cpl. Gregory S. Copenhaver, Port Deposit, Md.; Lance Cpl. Andres Garcia, Carlsbad, N.M.; Pfc. Walter Boyd, Norfolk, Va.; and Pfc. Kelton R. Turner, Los Angeles, Calif. The names of two Marines are being withheld at the request of their families. On May 12, 1975, Khmer Rouge gunboats captured the SS Mayaguez in the Gulf of Thailand approximately 60 nautical miles off the coast of Cambodia. The vessel was taken to Koh [island] Tang. Alerted to the capture, U.S. Navy and Air Force aircraft began surveillance flights around the island. After efforts to secure the release of the ship and its crew failed, U.S. military forces were ordered to undertake a rescue mission. Three days after the Mayaguez seizure, six Air Force helicopters were dispatched to the island. One of the helicopters came under heavy enemy fire as it approached the eastern beach of the island. The aircraft crashed into the surf with 26 men on board. Half were rescued at sea, leaving 13 unaccounted-for. The United States, Cambodian and Vietnamese government efforts to resolve the cases of these unaccounted-for Marines was massive. Between 1991-99, U.S. and Cambodian investigators conducted seven joint investigations, led by the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting. Additionally, on three occasions Cambodian authorities unilaterally turned over remains believed to be those of American servicemen. In October and November 1995, U.S. and Cambodian specialists conducted an underwater recovery of the helicopter crash site where they located numerous remains, personal effects and aircraft debris associated with the loss. The USS Brunswick, a Navy salvage vessel, enabled the specialists to conduct their excavation off shore. In addition to the support provided by the Cambodian government, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam also interviewed two Vietnamese informants in Ho Chi Minh City who turned over remains that were later positively identified. With the accounting of these six Marines, 2,022 Americans remain missing in action from the Vietnam War. Another 561 have been identified and returned to their families since the end of the war. Analysis of the remains and other evidence was made by the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii, which also conducted all the remains recovery operations. The CILHI made extensive use of mitochondrial DNA as one of the forensic identification tools to establish the identity of these men. The U.S. government welcomes and appreciates the cooperation of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam that resulted in the accounting of these servicemen. We hope that such cooperation will bring increased results in the future. Achieving the fullest possible accounting for these Americans is of the highest national priority. "
20 MAY 00: Iran has freed some 460 Iraqi prisoners from the 1980-88 war, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. Tehran says Iraq still holds 2,800 Iranian prisoners but the spokesman, in a statement carried by the official Iraqi News Agency (INA), denied Iraq was holding any Iranians, saying it knew only of lists of Iranian troops missing in action. "While Iraq appreciates the release of a limited number of our prisoners of war after a long delay, it does not consider it a unilateral move as some Iranian officials have considered it," the spokesman said. "There are lists of some 3,119 Iranians missing in action and Iraq has expressed readiness to cooperate with the Iranian side to find information about and investigate them, but the Iranian side is unwilling to do so." INA said the Iraqi POWs, many looking ill and exhausted, crossed the border late on Tuesday night under the supervision of the ICRC. The freed men brought to 2,939 the number of Iraqi POWs released by Iran since last month: 1,999 were released in April and 480 earlier in May. The fate of thousands of POWs is among the thorniest issues hindering Iraq-Iran ties. When the prisoners arrived, relatives strained to recognize men folk who went to war as young men and returned with gray hair. Some had been captives for the last 18 years. The ICRC said it had supervised repatriations of almost 98,000 POWs from both sides.
From DOD: "The Opening Ceremony for the Korean War Commemoration will be held on Sunday, June 25, 2000 at 4 p.m. at the Korean War Veterans Memorial on The Mall in Washington, DC. Details on guest speakers, parking and other activities will be posted in the future. We invite you to spread this word to Korean War Veterans, their families and friends. This event will begin a three-year long commemoration honoring Korean War Veterans and will conclude with a Closing Ceremony on Veterans Day, 2003.
21 MAY 00: From the NAF - "H.Con. Res 311 calling for the United States to "..continue to actively pursue efforts to achieve a full accounting of unaccounted for persons from past wars, including recovery and identification of remains..." needs cosponsors. Write your congressional representative now! Ask that he or she become a co-sponsor of H.Con Res. 311. Send your letters to your Congressional Representative at U.S. House of Representative, Washington D.C. 20515."
22 MAY 00: Iran held a mass funeral on Friday for 300 soldiers killed in the 1980-88 war with Iraq, whose remains were recently found in former battlefields. An emotional crowd of several thousand rushed forward to touch the fallen soldiers' coffins, wrapped in Iranian flags, which were carried on trucks to a cemetery south of Tehran. The remains of some 30,000 Iranian troops missing in action have been found and identified since the end of the war. An estimated one million Iranians and Iraqis were killed in the war, according to Western sources.
23 MAY 00: Emperor Akihito voiced sorrow on Tuesday at the "unhealed scars" left by Japan's wartime treatment of Dutch victims as he started an official European visit clouded by controversy over his country's military past. But resentment remains over how Japanese occupation forces treated Dutch residents of Indonesia, then a Dutch colony, during the war when Akihito's father Hirohito reigned. Japanese forces put all 110,000 Dutch residents of Indonesia, including women and children, into internment camps where about 20,000 of them died. The emperor said earlier this month he regretted the pain the last world war caused in the Netherlands, where ex-prisoners of war have often expressed anti-Japanese feelings.
24 MAY 00: The Discovery Channel (Cable) aired a surprising good documentary titled "Seized At Sea" which goes into an in-depth account of the Mayaguez loss off the shores of Cambodia. Although 6 sets of remains have been returned and announcements of identifications made, a stunning remark by one of the former Cambodian soldiers reminded everyone of the unaccounted-for men... apparently 3 Marines were left behind, alive, and were seen coming out of the jungle looking for food and water SEVERAL DAYS after the battle, the three men? Garry Hall, Danny MArshall and Joseph Hargrove... still unaccounted-for.
25 MAY 00: The Air Force chose the 40th anniversary of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers' downing over the Soviet Union to honor the Cold War pilot with medals he had long been denied. Powers' family accepted a Distinguished Flying Cross, Department of Defense Prisoner of War Medal and National Defense Service Medal on his behalf during a ceremony Monday on the tarmac at Beale Air Force Base in Northern California. Powers died in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles in 1977. Powers' spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960 and he was imprisoned there for two years. "The mind still boggles (over) what we asked this man to do: Fly in a plane like this over downtown Moscow, alone, unarmed and unafraid, then to suffer in prison during what indeed was a war, the Cold War,'" said Brig. Gen. Kevin Chilton, who presented two of the awards. Because Powers was considered a CIA employee, not a member of the military, he wasn't recognized as a POW. That changed in 1998, when declassified Cold War documents revealed the mission was a joint operation by the CIA and the Air Force.
AP is reporting - "WASHINGTON (AP) - After months of stalemate, North Korea has agreed to resume talks on excavating an area in North Korea where U.S. officials believe they could unearth the remains of several hundred Americans killed in the Korean War, a U.S. official said Friday. "Before the end of June we should be back to the table" to negotiate details of the arrangement, Robert Jones, head of the Pentagon office in charge of POW and missing-in-action issues, said in an interview." There has been no movement since talks with communist North Korea broke down last year. One of the sticking points was the North Korean demand for compensation in the form of massive aid to include factory construction. Can anyone say quid pro quo? So much for the 'humanitarian' aspect of the issue. If talks proceed and move towards a recovery effort, the US has targeted a site in Unsan, where fierce fighting between Chinese troops and the US, resulted in massive loss of life. The Pentagon is expecting an excavation to unearth in excess of 500 sets of American remains. This dovetails with reports from North Korea that they held/hold more than 400 sets of American remains from the Forgotten War. After much brouhaha from the DoD, North Korea reversed itself to state they held several sets of remains but that several hundred more could be found at this site. If the Unsan site is successfully excavated, DPMO officials are hoping to add the Chosin Reservoir region to the list of future recovery efforts. If these talks proceed and lead to a successful recovery effort, bravo. Perhaps the fates of several hundred or more men will be known and surviving family members may find answers and peace."
But what about the POWs?
From the DPMO Weekly (sometimes) Update - "DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS NAMED"
Ashton H. Ormes has been selected to head the Research and Analysis directorate in the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office. Ormes has recently completed a long and distinguished career in the U.S. Army and will now lead the largest directorate in DPMO. His organization is responsible for analysis of individual MIA cases from the Vietnam War and the Korean War, to help resolve the more than 10,000 cases from those two conflicts. His staff also participates in negotiations and technical talks with representatives of the governments of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and North Korea. Working with other agencies, they assist in oversight of U.S. policies and operations in POW/MIA accounting. Prior to assuming his position with DPMO, he served in the State Departmentšs Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs where he represented the DoD in interagency policy formulation and managed team projects within the interagency process. He also served as Secretary to the Military Armistice Commission with the United Nations Command at Panmunjom, Korea. There, he led negotiations with North Korea and helped develop armistice policy positions. He also served in DIAšs Asia division, and later as deputy chief of the newly formed Office of National Security Issues. He served in other command and staff assignments in the U.S., to include the Joint Staff in the Pentagon as well as with NATOšs Allied Forces Northern Europe in Norway.
ANALYSTS REVIEW KOREAN WAR RECORDS
Two senior analysts traveled recently to Carlisle, Pa. to research Korean War unit histories and other related documents at the U.S. Army Military History Institute Library. They reviewed over 4,500 pages of archives in the library and retrieved valuable information on combat unit dispositions during all phases of the war. Their findings include, but are not limited to, unit histories of the 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 24th, 25th, and 45th Infantry Divisions, and the 1st Cavalry Division. Also included are documents dealing with the Chosin Reservoir and North Korean Army Order of Battle (Korean War period), and reports from the Military Armistice Commission on ŗMeetings of Graves Registration Committee held at Panmunjom, Korea, 21 July 1954˛ and ŗMeetings of Staff Officers Designated to Discuss Body Recovery Program (1954).˛
ORAL HISTORY INITIATIVES
Analysts from DPMO and the USAF Casualty Office recently attended the 8th Attack Squadron Association Reunion at Randolph AFB near San Antonio, Tex. The government representatives from both organizations spoke to reunion attendees on the effort to develop information on the loss incidents of servicemen still missing from the Korean War, and the search and recovery efforts on the peninsula.
Also discussed was the outreach program to locate the next of kin of men still missing. Each of the military services has established a toll-free number for Korean War next-of-kin to contact the respective casualty office. The Air Forcešs number is: (800) 531-5501; Army: (800) 892-2490; Marine Corps: (800) 847-1597; Navy: (800) 443-9298. The reunion included attendees of the 8th Bomb Squadron (Light), as it was known in the Korean War. Veterans shared specific loss information on four aircrews of B-26 bombers which did not return from their missions. Information from the interviews will be placed in case files and passed to the Air Force for forwarding to the next-of-kin."
26 MAY 00: The U.S. Senate has passed by Unanimous consent (of those present), S. 484 - The Bring Them Home Alive Act of 1999. It now goes to the House for consideration. This legislation, introduce by Sen. Campbell would provide amnesty or refugee status to any national, and their family, from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, North Korea, China, and the former states of the former Soviet Union if they assist in bringing out a live American Prisoner of War.
27 MAY 00: An adviser to a U.S. government organization that last week launched an investigation into war crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army said Saturday the group's main task is to explore the conditions of U.S. prisoners of war (POWs). Linda Holmes, who has been appointed to the Historical Advisory Panel of the Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group, said the organ will work toward declassifying Japanese war crimes records held by the U.S. government. Investigations into and declassification of such records would be ''helpful'' to former U.S. POWs during World War II, many of whom have filed damages lawsuits against Japanese companies over forced labor during the war. ''The issue of slave labor for Japanese companies is a major unresolved issue of the Pacific War,'' said Holmes, a historian who has been researching Japanese crimes of World War II for more than 20 years. ''Our first responsibility is to examine the treatment of Americans...while performing slave labor for Japanese industries or their treatment as interned civilians at various locations in Japanese-occupied territories in the Pacific,'' she told Kyodo News. The working group was established in January 1999 by an executive order issued by President Bill Clinton with the aim of locating and identifying classified records of war crimes committed by Nazi Germany and its allies. It is to declassify all records and make them available to the public, except those whose disclosure could affect the national security of the United States. The investigation into Japanese war crimes comes amid congressional moves to seek the greater disclosure of information on such crimes. Earlier this month, the Judiciary Committee of the Senate passed a bill that would require the U.S. government to disclose the war crime records on the Imperial Japanese Army.
DPMO Research Project Summary Report - Interesting document out of Pentagon on the National Archives of Cambodia DPMO Research Project. Please read it at - http://www.aiipowmia.com/inter1/in052700.html
28 MAY 00: The U.S. military is investigating the deaths of three Marines whose bodies were discovered 53 years after they disappeared in Okinawa during World War II. Mystery has surrounded the deaths of the three servicemen. The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported on Wednesday that some accounts say the three were killed by angry Okinawans after they assaulted local women. The Marines, Pfc. James D. Robinson of Savannah, Ga., Pfc. John M. Smith of Cincinnati and Pvt. Isaac Stokes, for whom no hometown was available, vanished in July 1945 on the southern Japanese island. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is looking into the deaths, said Marine Corp. spokesman Capt. Joseph M. Plenzler at Camp Foster in Okinawa. He would not provide further details. The U.S. military originally declared the three men deserters after they disappeared, but later ruled them missing in action, he said. Nothing was heard of them for more than 50 years, until workers at a U.S. base on the island heard the story of three American soldiers who were killed by locals during the war and dumped in a mountain cave. Okinawa police investigated and uncovered the three Marines' remains north of Nago, 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo, and turned them over the U.S. military in April 1998. The bodies were identified by the military in April 1999.
In an effort to bring the Memorial back into Memorial Day, a National Moment of Remembrance is being asked for from all Americans. The program, a spin-off of the No Greater Love project, recently passed a House Resolution and requests that all Americans stop, think and remember at precisely 3:PM on Memorial Day. For those who still wait for answers, every day is a Memorial Day because every minute is a memory.
Once again we remember - In honor of the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice, AII POW-MIA will, as is our tradition, black out the entire archives until the Memorial Day remembrances and ceremonies end Tuesday evening, May 30th. Please take a moment to remember and honor these selfless Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Coast Guardsmen, Merchant Mariners, Reservists, National Guardsmen and Marines, say a prayer for their families, and thank them all for the magnificent gift we live each and every day... Freedom. May God bless all of our Prisoners and Missing and those who wait.
http://www.aiipowmia.com/memday2000.html
29 MAY 00: MEMORIAL DAY: "WE TEND TO THINK ONLY IN TERMS OF WHAT WAR HAS COST US, BUT BY COMPARISON TO WHAT IT HAS COST SO MANY PEOPLE, OUR PRICE PALES." Col. William Nolde. REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE Arlington National Cemetery.
THE PRESIDENT: "Thank you very much. Secretary Cohen, thank you for your kind remarks and for your leadership. General Ivany, Superintendent Metzler, Colonel Durham, Secretary West, Secretary Slater, General Shelton and the Joint Chiefs, General McCaffrey, members of Congress and the diplomatic corps, veterans and family members, members of the Armed Services, members of the Armed Services who gave their lives for our country, my fellow Americans.
We are blessed again today, together again in this magnificent amphitheater, in our National Cemetery, to remember our fallen heroes. We honor, as well, all the proud veterans who would have made the same sacrifice if God had but called His heroes home in a different order.
As you entered the grounds this morning you saw every gravestone decorated with an American flag. Indeed, this day of remembrance was first known as Decoration Day, launched in 1868 by the Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic who designated this day for decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country. Some still mark this holiday in the same way.
On Thursday before Memorial Day, this year and every year for more than 40 years now, the entire regiment of 1,200 soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry has honored America's fallen heroes by placing American flags before every single one of the more than 260,000 gravestones here at Arlington; then remaining on patrol 24 hours a day all weekend long to make sure each flag remains standing.
All across our country in small towns and large cities, veterans groups represented here today perform the same sacred ritual. I want to recognize and thank the members of the Old Guard, and the veterans all across America for their patriotism, devotion, and commitment to honoring the original meaning of Memorial Day. I thank them very, very much.
Arlington's hallowed earth embraces the bodies of servicemen and women from every one of our nation's wars. Every generation has borne a share of the burden of defending the Republic, and giving to each succeeding generation the chance for freedom. Presidents Kennedy and Taft are buried here. Generals Pershing and Bradley are buried here.
Admirals Halsey and Rickover are buried here; as are John Foster Dulles and Oliver Wendell Holmes, George Marshall and Audie Murphy. Three of the Marines we remember forever for raising our flag on Iwo Jima -- they are buried here. And, of course, all the unknown, unsung heroes of more than two centuries of fighting tyranny are buried here. This is sacred soil, and the heart and the history of America.
Our hearts go out today especially to those our departed veterans left behind -- the young women who had to cancel a wedding, young mothers who raised their children alone, mothers and fathers who faced perhaps life's greatest heartbreak. To all the families who have placed a Gold Star in their window, I renew our nation's enduring pledge - the United States will always honor and never forsake its fallen heroes. We will not abandon their families. And wherever it takes, as long as it takes, we will keep our commitment to seek the fullest possible accounting.
This morning we were honored to receive at the White House the sons and daughters and spouses of servicemen still missing in action. There is no more compelling way to understand how important our continuous efforts are to the hearts and minds of Americans than to hear it from family members themselves. And that is why I am pleased to announce to you today that the United States and North Korea have agreed to resume the talks the first week of June in Kuala Lumpur in hopes of resuming recovery operations in North Korea this year.
As we prepare to observe the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War, on June 25th, we reaffirm our commitment to the more than 1.7 million Americans who served in Korea, the more than 36,000 who lost their lives there, and the more than 8,100 still missing.
I also want to tell you today about the latest American soldier to come home. Just last week our team of specialists identified finally and official the remains of a soldier of the 1st Calvary Regiment of the Americal division, whose Huey helicopter was flying in the weeds at 25 feet over Laos in the summer of 1970 when it lost power and crashed. The young soldier died immediately. When others rushed to the scene to bring his body out, they were forced back by enemy fire. When they tried again a short time later, they were again forced back. But finally, America returned to recover its own.
Years later, with the help of several governments, extensive interviews, excavations, and DNA testing, a positive identification was made. Army Specialist 4 John E. Crowley, of Williamson, New York, forever 20 years old, was laid to rest here in Arlington Cemetery on Friday in a simple ceremony attended by his mother, brother, cousins, nieces, and nephews. For the life and service of Specialist Crowley, for the sacrifice of his family and every family that has suffered such loss, America is eternally grateful.
We are also grateful for the many groups like Rolling Thunder, who come to Washington to advocate for our POW-MIA families. We hear you. We certainly hear Rolling Thunder when they're here. We welcome you, and we are honored to work with you.
To preserve the peace, we must never forget the sacrifices that have paved the way to peace. Four years ago, Carmella LaSpada, a longtime advocate for families who have lost a loved one in conflict, asked a group of school children what Memorial Day means. And the children said, that's the day the pool opens. Well, that's not their fault that that was their answer. We adults must do more to teach them.
That's why Carmella worked with Lt. Colonel Jeff Douglass and so many of you here today to launch a new national commitment to put "memorial" back in Memorial Day. So today, for the third straight year, I ask all Americans, in a profoundly symbolic and important act of national unity, to pause, wherever they are at 3:00 p.m. local time, to observe a national moment of remembrance for America's fallen heroes.
At that time, the somber tones of Taps, our national requiem, will be played all across America, and beyond -- in the U.S. Capitol, in the Vietnam Memorial, at Ellis Island and the Liberty Bell, in VA hospitals and national parks, on Voice of America and Armed Forces Network, and in hundreds of places we Americans will be gathering today. When little boys and girls turn to their parents and whisper, "Mommy, Daddy, what's happening," a new generation of Americans will have a chance to hear about the defenders of freedom.
As we remember their sacrifice, as Secretary Cohen so eloquently pointed out, we must also resolve to fulfill the obligation the rest of us incurred with their sacrifice -- to keep America free and strong. If those who fought and died for us could talk to us on this Memorial Day, they might well ask, America, have you made our sacrifice matter? At the dawn of a new century, Americans can answer that question with solemn pride. Today we are fortunate to be the most powerful and prosperous nation on Earth, with a military respected around the world. We could say, yes, America has made your sacrifice matter.
America is at peace. And the risk of war that would scar the lives of a whole generation has been vastly reduced. Yes, America has made your sacrifice matter. You fought for freedom in foreign lands, knowing it would protect our freedom at home. Today, freedom advances all around the world, and for the first time in all human history, more than half the world's people choose their own leaders. Yes, America has made your sacrifice matter.
You fought to conquer tyranny and bring unity to Europe, where more than 100,000 American heroes are now buried. You gave your lives in places like Flanders Field and Normandy. But today Europe is more united, more free, more peaceful than anytime in history. We have three new allies in NATO and many new partners across Europe's old Cold War divide. Central Europe is free and flourishing. Soldiers from almost every European country, the most bitter former adversaries among them, now serve under a single command, keeping the peace in Bosnia, in Kosovo. Yes, America is making your sacrifice matter.
We have more to do. Later today I will leave for Europe to meet with our partners in the European Union in Portugal, and to make the first visit of an American President to Berlin as the capital of a free and undivided Germany. We will continue our work with our European allies for peace and freedom -- to make their sacrifice matter.
I will visit Russia, the former adversary with whom we are trying so hard to build a new partnership and a safer world. Russia has just seen its first transition from one democratically elected government to another in 1,000 years of history. For the first time an American President will speak to a democratically elected Russian Parliament. As we support those changes, we will continue to push for greater and deeper ones -- to make their sacrifice matter.
I will go to Ukraine, a large country with over 60 million people, struggling to cast off the bitter legacy of communism; located in a strategic place that will determine much of the future of the 21st century; to support those who favor freedom and prosperity and stability -- to make their sacrifice matter.
The world of today would not be recognized by those who lived at the beginning of the Cold War. Old adversaries have become allies; dictatorships have become democracies; Europe is more peaceful and united; the communism we fought to contain has collapsed, reformed or been discredited around the world.
Heartened by our progress toward peace and prosperity, we will pursue the two remaining challenges in fulfilling the age-old vision of a Europe peaceful, democratic and undivided -- bringing Southeastern Europe and the former states of the Soviet Union into the community of democracies.
On this first Memorial Day of the 21st century, the 8th and last Memorial Day I have had the honor to address the people of this country in this place as President, I give thanks to all those who have stood their ground to defend freedom and democracy and human dignity. And especially to those and their families who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Americans never fought for empire, for territory, for dominance -- but many, many Americans gave their lives for freedom. As we stand at the dawn of a new century they never saw, but did so much to guarantee for us, far from fading into the past, their sacrifice is paving the way to our future.
Thirty, forty, fifty years after our fallen veterans have gone, we can say, glory hallelujah, your truth is marching on. May God bless you all, and God bless America. "
The United States and North Korea will resume talks next month on recovering more than 8,100 U.S. soldiers missing in action from the Korean War, U.S. President Bill Clinton said. Clinton said the nations hoped to resume joint operations to search for remains of U.S. soldiers missing from the 1950-53 conflict by the end of this year as he marked the Memorial Day holiday to honor U.S. soldiers killed serving their country. The talks would take place in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur nearly 50 years after North Korean communist forces invaded South Korea, triggering a three-year conflict that ended with an armistice that divided the Korean peninsula into two countries still technically at war. Their resumption appears part of the diplomatic offensive that reclusive, Stalinist North Korea has launched in recent months to end its Cold War isolation, notably through a June 12-14 Pyongyang summit that will bring together its enigmatic leader Kim Jong-il with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. The United States and North Korea have identified remains of about 40 U.S soldiers killed during the Korean War through joint operations carried out since 1996, a U.S. official told reporters.
The leader of Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrilla movement said Hizbollah would continue to search for missing Israeli airman Ron Arad if Israel released its Lebanese prisoners, as Hizbollah demands. "Holding the remaining Lebanese prisoners, in fact, will not affect the Ron Arad case. If Israel believes that if it releases (prisoners) we will lose the incentive to search for Ron Arad ...we will not lose the incentive," Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview with Qatar's al-Jazeera satellite television. "If we find Ron Arad, dead or alive, the price we will demand is not just Lebanese prisoners...Palestinian prisoners are part of the demands," Nasrallah said. "So they should release Lebanese prisoners to resolve the problem with Lebanon," he added. Israel said on Friday it was holding 15 Lebanese prisoners, among them Hizbollah cleric Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid. Hizbollah says there are 30, and demands their release as a condition for an end to its war against Israel, which hastily ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon this week. Israel has held some of the prisoners as potential bargaining chips in the hope of getting information on Arad, who baled out when his plane was shot down over southern Lebanon in 1986. He was initially held by Shi'ite Moslem Amal guerrillas but was later passed on to a splinter group and has not been heard of since 1989. Israeli officials believe he might still be alive. Nasrallah said Israel should consider Arad in the same light as three other Israeli soldiers who went missing after the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Israeli authorities have said they believe those three are dead.
30 MAY 00: Let us remember ....
General Order No. 11
Headquarters, Grand Army of the Republic Washington, D.C.,
May 5, 1868
Decoration Day
I. The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form or ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.
We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose, among other things, "of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors, and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion." What can aid more to assure this result than by cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foe? Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their death a tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms. We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the Nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and found mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of free and undivided republic.
If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain in us.
Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sacred charges upon the Nation's gratitude,--the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan.
II. It is the purpose of the Commander-in-Chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to call attention to this Order, and lend its friendly aid in bringing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith.
III. Department commanders will use every effort to make this order effective.
By command of:
JOHN A. LOGAN,
Commander-in-Chief.
N. P. CHIPMAN,
Adjutant-General.
31 MAY 00: The next Veteran/Family Update is scheduled for July 28 / July 29 in Milwaukee, WI. The Central Highlands province of Kon Tum has held a burial service for nine sets of remains, identified as Vietnamese volunteer combatants and experts, who had died in Laos while discharging their international mission during the American war. These remains have been discovered by people of Attopu and Sekong provinces of Laos, and then collected by the Kon Tum Military Command's Remains Collection Team. The Lao local administration had held a memorial service for the fallen combatants at a border point between the two countries before handing them over to the Vietnamese side. It was the fifth batch of remains of Vietnamese servicemen returned by Laos so far.
31 MAY 00: REMINDER - DOD/DPMO Family Updates Will Coincide With the Annual Family Conferences Held in Washington, DC, June 2000. For more information on the conferences, dates, schedules and accomodations please contact the National League of Families, the National Alliance of Families or the Coalition of Families of Korean & Cold War POW/MIAs
POW-MIA Issue Update June 2000