August 1999
Summary of news for the entire month.
For recent and daily news, please go to: InterNetwork
01 AUG 99: 2,057 Americans remain "officially" unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War: ARMY: 649 (VN-9, VS-495; LA-110; CB-35); NAVY: 416 (VN-285, VS-92; LA-28; CB-3; CH/OW-8); USMC: 263 (VN-24, VS-203; LA-22; CB-14); USAF: 683 (VN-233; VS-165; LA-268; CB-17); and COAST GUARD: 1 (VS-1). 39 civilians remain unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War: VS-22, LA-12, and CB-5. 526 Americans have been accounted-for post 1973: VN-388, LA-129, CB-7, and CH-2. 157 Americans have been accounted-for during the present administration: VN-85, LA-66, and CB-6. 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.
For lists of Returnees, Escapees and Remains Returned, please go to -
Escapees From SEA - List http://www.aiipowmia.com/sea/escapees.html
Returnees From SEA - List - http://www.aiipowmia.com/sea/returnees.html
Remains Returned - Vietnam War - http://131.84.1.34/dpmo/pmsea/files.htm
01 AUG 99: POW-MIA Legislative Update - S.484, the Bring Them Home Alive Act (Senate): 20 Cosponsors; HR 1926, the Bring Them Home Alive Act (House): 57 Cosponsors; H.Res 172 - PASSED; H.Res 16: 16 Cosponsors. 02 AUG 99: The USPS unveiled its new stamp today, dedicated to honoring 'The Longest War: Vietnam.' The stamp itself and the USPS Release may be viewed at - http://www.aiipowmia.com/inter/in080299.html
Continuing in the tradition of rewarding the staunchest POW-MIA debunkers, former DASB of East Asian Affairs, Kent Weidemann, has been appointed to the post of US Ambassador to Laos. Upon arrival in Phnom Penh, Weidemann stated his goals to be 'to help stabilize democracy, improve prosperity and strengthen relations between the United States and Cambodia.' For those unfamiliar with Weidemann, here is some background - former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Bureau for East Asian Affairs, he served on the US-Russia Joint Commission, without distinction. He was also part of Lake/Weidemann/Toll/Hrdlicka meetings on Live POWs, and has testified repeatedly on the POW-MIA issue before Congress. There's an old saying - 'No good deed ever goes unpunished'. Does that mean bad deeds are rewarded? Something to think about. For more insight into Mr. Weidemann's thinking, we direct you to the following -
House Subcommittee on Military Personnel (Dornan Hearings) Testimony
Foreign Relations Subcommittee for Asian and Pacific Affairs Testimony
Barry Toll's Submission to the Ackerman Hearings on Mr. Weidemann's behavior with respect to evidence of Live POWs
03 AUG 99: President Clinton said that a landmark trade agreement with Hanoi will spur cooperation on other issues including the fullest possible accounting of Americans missing from the Vietnam War. The agreement in principle will remove the final barrier for U.S. investors. For Vietnam, it is expected to help develop exports markets and revive an economy battered by the fallout from the Asian financial crisis. The agreement is expected to take effect early next year.
04 AUG 99: The troubling case of USN pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Michael S. Speicher, continues to become more troubling. AP is reporting 'new revalations' that Speicher may have survived his crash. As we have been reporting for several years, Speicher, whose remains were never recovered, created enormous controversy over at DoD when a satellite imaged his crash and a man-made symbol was seen. Current reports state that some military officials believe Speicher may have survived. We now hear, as late as 19 July 99, that a briefing memo sent to a family organization stated that after the wreckage was located, the pilot had been cut out of his flight suit. The memo also made mention that the flight suit and other survival gear may have been moved after the crash. Once the Gulf War ended, the Iraqis returned was they purported to be Speicher's remains. mtDNA and typing proved this to be false.
In 1998 we wrote: The New York Times reports that Navy F-18 pilot Lt. Cmdr. Michael Speicher, the first American lost in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and the only one whose fate remains unknown is under continuing investigation. The DoD sent a spy satellite over the crash site and "detected a man-made symbol in the area of the ejection seat." In December 1995, two years after the discovery of the crash site, a Red Cross team visited the site. The site had been scavenged by Bedouin nomads. A tattered flight site and one of the plane's date recorders had been recovered from the nomads. Mr. Liotta said that the team emerged with a clearer picture of what happened to Cmdr. Speicher. When asked if Speicher could have survived, Mr. Liotta said "we don't know." Speicher is listed as "killed-in-action - body not recovered." The first American lost in the Persian Gulf War remains the last to be accounted-for. Specialists who have viewed the 'manmade symbol' at the crash site have interpreted the symbol as being one created by a pilot having survived his incident. Several years ago, information surfaced that indicated Speicher may well have survived and that the DOD had planned a mission to the Middle East to determine his fate. It also claimed that in the event Speicher did not survive the loss incident, a determination of fate would be more clearly established. In March 1999, the Navy Sceretary was asked by two MOCs to change the official status of Naval Pilot Lt. Cmdr. Michael Speicher from PFOD to Missing.
05 AUG 99: The remains of three Americans have been identified from the war in Southeast Asia and are being returned to their families for burial in the United States. They are identified as Maj. Charles F. Morley of Warrensburg, MO. and Capt. Thomas C. Daffron of Pinckneyville, IL, both of the U.S. Air Force. A third Air Force officer, once missing in action from North Vietnam, was also identified but at the request of his family his name will not be released. With the accounting of these three, there are now 2,055 Americans unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War.
The late Harriet Gowen of Stillwater, MN, was a Red Cross nurse who fulfilled her desire to help her country as a recreation specialist at a military hospital in New Guinea. Ms. Gowen was declared missing in 1945. Her remains were found along with those of Army pilot, 1st Lt. Harold Wurtz, in airplane wreckage in the mountains of New Guinea in 1996. The commingled remains of Ms. Gowen and Lt. Wurtz will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Lt. Wurtz will receive full military honors. Ms. Gowen's family will be presented with a Red Cross flag by a Red Cross volunteer nurse who also served in WWII.
06 AUG 99: The remains of an American serviceman previously unaccounted-for from the war in Southeast Asia have been identified and returned to his family for burial in the United States. He is identified as Army Specialist 4th Class Roger L. Smith of South Point, Ohio. With this accounting, 2,054 Americans remain unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War.
Another guy gets his ticket punched on the issue - A change of command ceremony was held at the organization responsible for accounting for Americans who remain missing and unaccounted-for from the war in Southeast Asia. Brig. Gen. Terry L. Tucker relinquished command of Joint Task Force-Full Accounting to Brig. Gen. Harry B. Axson, Jr., at the JTF-FA headquarters in Hawaii.
After a Russian-imposed break during NATO operations in Kosovo, DPMO researchers from the Joint Commission Support Directorate have resumed work reviewing the Soviet 64th Fighter Air Corps records held in the Russian Military Archives in Podolsk, Russia. The records being reviewed include the daily operational summaries for air defense fighters and air defense artillery, as well as documentation proving personal shootdown claims. DPMO has now received an additional 1,800 pages of these records, carefully reviewing each claimed shootdown to determine if there is a U.S. loss that matches the claim.
ABC's 20/20 newsmagazine program will air a story of the recovery of the remains of the crew of a B-24 bomber which crashed in southern China in 1944. ABC has followed this story since 1996 when two Chinese farmers stumbled on the crash site in an isolated, mountainous region of southern China. The aircraft, with a crew of ten, was returning from a bombing mission in the waters off Formosa. Operating under radio silence, it was directed to an alternate landing field in China, but weather obscured the area. While searching for the field, the aircraft crashed into a mountainside at approximately 7,000 feet. The crew has been listed as missing in action since 1944.
07 AUG 99: POW-MIA Legislative Update - S.484, the Bring Them Home Alive Act (Senate): 23 Cosponsors; HR 1926, the Bring Them Home Alive Act (House): 63 Cosponsors; H.Res 172 - PASSED; H.Res 16: 16 Cosponsors.
10 AUG 99: The remains of an American Army Air Forces officer and an American Red Cross employee have been identified and were interred in Arlington National Cemetery Friday, Aug. 6, 1999. They are identified as 1st Lt. Harold F. Wurtz Jr. of Dearborn, Mich. and Harriet E. Gowen of Stillwater, Minn. On May 12, 1945, Wurtz and Gowen took off from an airstrip in Nadzab New Guinea aboard a two-seat P-47D Thunderbolt. The aircraft disappeared after take-off and aerial search missions on May 12th and 13th proved unsuccessful.
11 AUG 99: UN Sec. Gen. Kofi Annan marked the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions in a ceremony today in Geneva. The four conventions, concluded on August 12, 1949, deal with the treatment of wounded and sick members of armed forces in the field; wounded, sick and shipwrecked members of armed forces at sea; the treatment of prisoners of war; and the protection of civilians in time of war.
13 AUG 99: John Dortch "Booty" Lewis Sr., a Goldsboro insurance executive whose World War II exploits were chronicled in part in the movie "The Great Escape," died Sunday of pancreatic cancer at age 84. Lewis spent most of two years in Germany's Stalag Luft III. That was the prison camp from which prisoners of war tunneled to freedom in an escape later to be made into a movie, "The Great Escape," starring Steve McQueen. Many of the exploits portrayed by McQueen were based on escape attempts and other activities by Lewis.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has praised Ethiopia for giving an ICRC delegation full access to Eritrean prisoners of war held in Ethiopia. But ICRC President Cornelio Sammuraga expressed regret that a request by his delegation to visit Ethiopian POWs in Eritrea had been denied. The ICRC has had a sporadic history of success when dealing with hostile nations and the POWs it holds. Nations such as Communist Vietnam and North Korea have never allowed humanitarian visits, whereas the Former Yugloslavia permitted visitation. Where the ICRC has continually tried to gain access to POWs and prisoners in other categories, Amnesty International will not assist POWs or their families given that the reason for their confinement is a 'hostile capture.' Go figure.
14 AUG 99: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein marked the 11th anniversary of the end of the Iraq-Iran war by accusing Tehran of ill-treating thousands of Iraqi prisoners of war he said it still held. Saddam said Iraq had freed all of its 39,000 Iranian POWs. One Iranian pilot whose plane was shot down early in the war was kept in captivity for a while to prove that Iran started the war, but he was freed last year, Saddam said. The fate of thousands of POWs is among the thorniest issues hindering ties between the two neighbors. Iraq says Iran still holds 13,000 of its soldiers, some of whom have languished in Iranian jails for more than 15 years. Iran says several thousand of its troops are still being held as POWs in Iraq, but gives different versions of the exact number.
16 AUG 99: DPMO Update excerpts - UNACCOUNTED-FOR SERVICEMEN IDENTIFIED - The remains of three Americans have been identified from the war in Southeast Asia and returned to their families for burial in the United States. They are identified as Maj. Charles F. Morley of Warrensburg, Mo. and Capt. Thomas C. Daffron of Pinckneyville, Ill., both of the US Air Force. A third Air Force officer, once missing in action from North Vietnam, was also identified but at the request of his family his name will not be released. MIA SEARCH TEAM DEPLOYS TO LAOS - A team of 44 mostly Hawaii-based US military specialists departed for Laos Friday with hopes of recovering remains that may lead to the identification of American servicemen listed as missing in action from the war in Southeast Asia. Military and civilian members from Joint Task Force-Full Accounting at Camp Smith and the US Armyšs Central Identification Lab at Hickam Air Force Base will join technical representatives tomorrow from the Lao Democratic Peoplešs Republic to begin joint investigations and remains recovery operations in four Lao provinces. The US team is comprised of 22 Army, seven Air Force, seven Marine Corps, five Navy, and three Department of Defense civilians. There are two primary excavation sites and eight alternate locations, all US aircraft losses. Of the Americans missing in action from the war in Southeast Asia, 442 are in Laos. This will be the 44th Joint Field Activity conducted in Laos since Joint Task Force-Full Accounting was formed in January 1992 at Camp Smith.
19 AUG 99: India will release eight Pakistani prisoners of war from recent fighting in Kashmir as a goodwill gesture, India's foreign ministry said Friday. India sent Pakistan's diplomatic mission a formal note Friday offering release of the POWs under the Geneva Conventions, said foreign ministry spokesman Raminder Singh Jassal. He identified the eight soldiers by name and unit.
20 AUG 99: The tenacity and courage that served him well as a POW served once again when Ralph Levenberg, 78, of Reno, Nevada filed a suit against mega-wealthy Nippon Sharyo LTD., and its US subsidiary. The suits alleges forced labor and demands US$75,000.00 and a court order to prevent either company from doing business in California. What he really wants though, is an apology. ''We slaved and got nothing and they got everything,'' said Levenberg who was captured by the Japanese Army in 1942 while in the Phillippines. In 1944 he was sent to Nagoya where he worked as a slave laborer for Nippon Sharyo, was beaten repeatedly and not compensated. Current law permits such suits as long as the suit is filed by 2010, then any statute of limitations will be overridden. California has a law which permits any survivor of slave labor imprisonment by the Nazis and their wartime allies to do the same.
21 AUG 99: Ambassador Pete Peterson watched the US flag being raised over the new US COnsulate in Ho Chi Minh City today and announced, "I personally see this as another event in a bright future.'' In stark contrast to the images of terrified people being airlifted from the old Embassy roof during the fall of Saigon, the new Embassy stands not far from the site of the demolished old Embassy. At a cost of US $3.5 million, the Embassy is expected to be one of the busiest since the US and the Communist nation have agreed to a bilateral trade agreement. Staffed by 20 Americans and 150 Vietnamese, the building also houses a permanent art collection.The consulate is expected to process 25,000 immigrant visas per year from 150,000 or more requests. More than 1.5 million ethnic Vietnamese live in the United States, and more than 100,000 Vietnamese natives return annually during the lunar new year festival called Tet.
23 AUG 99: FINALLY! Mainstream Media reports on the Cuba Program - As testified to by a number of former POWs, Cuban torturers were in evidence in SEA during the Second Indochina War. One infamous torturer was known by the then POWs as 'Fidel.' 18 men have recounted their ordeals at this man's hands... the daily whippings, being trussed, the endless pain and suffering. 'Fidel' was one of three known Cubans who had been sent to Vietnam to deal with POWs in what was referred to as the 'Cuba Program.' One POW was beaten and kicked so savagely he later died. The events that occured, kept secret by the USG for nearly 30 years, are now recounted in several published accounts. Unfortunately, these dark secrets precluded the American public from fully realizing the brutality that occured. For the complete article, please go to - http://www.aiipowmia.com/inter/in082399.html
25 AUG 99: It just goes to show that time does not heal all wounds. Perhaps it's the revisionist history, perhaps it's the simple fact no one ever says they're sorry anymore.l Perhaps it's simply the fact that some atrocities are so heinous they cannot ever be forgotten.... or forgiven. or should be.
Case in point: The State legislature of California passed a resolution demanding that Japan apologize to and compensate American POWs, the Comfort Women, and others who suffered so completely as a result of her war crimes. Brought about and passed as a voice vote, the measure is meant to begin a healing process and to insure that people are properly educated about the events and timeline of history. The next step is presenting the resolution to Japan and asking Congress for a similar measure. In addition to the atrocities against POWs and untold numbers of Asian women who were forced into sexual slavery, many being tortured and murdered, the Rape of Nanking and the Battle of Manila are also included as episodes of hate which need to be atoned for. Over the years, there has been a movement to address the unimaginable wrongs committed by governments. The US, who still fails to address its record agianst First Americans and broken Treaties, has managed to apologize and compensate Japanese Americans who were interned illegally during the war in such camps as Manzanar. It's a start, but there's a long, long way to go. Enough with revisionist history and excuses. Face up to the facts, admit the truth and apologize... it's not an answer, but it's a start.
26 AUG 99: POW-MIA Legislative Update - S.484, the Bring Them Home Alive Act (Senate): 23 Cosponsors; HR 1926, the Bring Them Home Alive Act (House): 63 Cosponsors; H.Res 172 - PASSED; H.Res 16: 16 Cosponsors.
27 AUG 99: The remains of three American servicemen previously unaccounted-for from Southeast Asia have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial in the United States. They are identified as Army Capt. Clyde D. Wilkinson of Mineral Wells, Tex., Army Warrant Officer Arthur E. McLeod of Bay Shore, N.Y., and Navy Lt. Cmdr. V. King Cameron of McAllen, Tex.
28 AUG 99: Fully fifty years after she forced thousands of Asian women to suffer the horrors of the Comfort Women Program, Japan has offered an untenable excuse to the UN Subcommission on Human Rights, and the UN has rejected that excuse. Japan claims that the treaties it concluded with other countries has settled all claims. However, in a 15-2 vote in the UN, Japan was told that under international law, Japan is responsible for the war crimes and human rights violations committed by her soldiers. Lawyers for the surviving women of the Comfort Women Program state that the apologies and reparations should also include survivors of the human experimentation programs such as Unit 731, forced laborers and POWs.
FROM DPMO: VIETNAMESE POW/MIA RESEARCHERS VISIT THE US - Researchers from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam are visiting U. S. archives this week in an effort to gather information on their casualties from the Vietnam War.
This is a continuation of an effort begun in 1994 when the U. S. returned captured Vietnamese documents to their government, and began providing support to American veterans service organizations in their "vet-to-vet" initiatives. These veteran-to-veteran contacts have led to the exchange of documents and information by soldiers on both sides. The researchers were invited by Robert L. Jones, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs. Jones' archival research staff discovered some U. S. Army burial records during their work in the National Archives facility at College Park, Md. The records appeared to shed some light on the fate of North Vietnamese soldiers who were casualties during combat with U. S. forces. "The Vietnamese government cooperates with our teams in Hanoi in seeking the fullest possible accounting of America's MIA," said Jones.
"When we discovered these records, it was clear that they may be of great use to our Vietnamese counterparts." The four Vietnamese researchers arrived Saturday, and have spent most of their time at the National Archives. There, they were assisted by archivists and by staff members of the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office as they reviewed documents, which had been uncovered. They also reviewed Navy and Marine Corps records at other locations. The researchers plan to take the documents back to Vietnam for further analysis. They were also escorted to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in Rockville, Md., where they were briefed on the use of mitochondrial DNA testing in the identification process of U. S. servicemen's' remains. They plan to leave the U. S. on Sunday. U. S. teams operate throughout the country in Vietnam interviewing villagers and government officials, reviewing military collections and archives, and conducting major excavations to recover the remains of American servicemen. While 529 servicemen have been identified and accounted-for since the end of the war, another 2,054 are still unaccounted-for from that war. The support and cooperation of the Vietnamese government and people has enabled U. S. teams to carry out their mission. The most recent identification of three American servicemen from the Vietnam war was announced earlier today.
29 AUG 99: With 600 million documents already reviewed and another 1 billion is the queue, the prospect of a release of classified material in the near future is fading fast. News reports state that because of the recent security/secrets breach resulting from nuclear theft, all those millions of pages may have to be re-reviewed to prevent an 'accidental' disclsoure. Unfortunately, many POW documents are found in those pages and may remain secreted until a final decision is made - release or re-review. It's almost a moot point actually. Both Presidents, Bush and Clinton, have authorized document declassification and release, yet the results were miserly at best until a recent release of roughly 400 million documents hit the shelves. To its everlasting discredit, the NSA (Never Say Anything, No Such Agency) has failed to respond to repeated requests from both the private sector and the political one. The US is very, very good at protecting things it simply wants no one to see. They cease to exist... much like our POWs and MIAs.
On September 18, 1999, at 6 PM, The Colonel Charles E. Shelton Freedom Memorial will be dedicated in a city park on the banks of the Ohio River in Shelton's hometown of Owensboro, Kentucky. The $250,000 black granite and limestone memorial will also honor all the US military men and women who have been prisoners of war or missing in action. Everyone is invited to join the dedication. For more info, please go to - http://www.aiipowmia.com/inter/in082999e.html
Jane Duke Gaylor, mother of POW/MIA Charles R. Duke passed away yesterday Sunday, August 29, 1999, at 3:10 PM. Jane, after a long battle with several illnesses succumbed to lung cancer. She will be cremated in Florida and buried in Dallas Texas. Jane Gaylor requested that the POW/MIA flag be flown at her gravesite service. Perhaps she will now find the answers that eluded her for so many years.
31 AUG 99: On September 7, PBS will air Pete Peterson: Assignment Hanoi at 10:PM EST. In 1966, Air Force Captain Pete Peterson is shot down over Vietnam and spends 6 * years as a prisoner of war. 31 years later, he returns to Vietnam - voluntarily - as the first U.S. Ambassador since the war. Assignment Hanoi chronicles Peterson's remarkable odyssey.
National POW/MIA Recognition Day is September 17th this year. Programs will be held throughout the United States and at military installations around the world. The primary focus of this year's national ceremony will be Secretary of Defense Cohen's dedication of an inscription on the empty Vietnam War crypt at the Tomb of the Unknowns, Arlington National Cemetery. The inscription will read "HONORING AND KEEPING FAITH WITH AMERICA'S MISSING SERVICEMEN." The dates 1958-1975 were previously inscribed. For information on the ceremony closest to you, please contact the Defense POW/MIA Office, (703) 602-2102, Ext. 111.
31 AUG 99: REMINDER - DOD/DPMO Family Update - 24/25 SEP 1999 - Spokane, Washington Family members who wish to attend are requested to contact their casualty office.
The National League of Families has announced that its 31st annual meeting is scheduled for June 21-24, 2000, at the Washington Marriott Hotel.
POW-MIA Issue Update September 1999