January 2003

Summary of news for the entire month.
For recent and daily news, please go to: InterNetwork

January 31, 2003 USS Pueblo Resolution
Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) has reintroduced a Senate Resolution calling on North Korea to return the USS Pueblo to the United States Navy.

January 30, 2003 USS Pueblo: POW Stories
On Jan. 23, 1968, the Navy spy ship Pueblo was attacked and captured off the North Korean coast. Almost 35 later, Cmdr. Lloyd "Pete" Bucher, skipper of the Pueblo, spoke of his experience at the Marblehead High School auditorium.

January 29, 2003 SWA - The Detainees: A Discussion
A year ago last week, the United States brought the first prisoners in the war on terrorism to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Jeffrey Kaye of KCET Los Angeles reports on the state of the site.

January 29, 2003 SEA - Recovery Missions to Cambodia & Laos
Two Joint Field Activities will deploy from Hawaii this week to conduct investigative and recovery operations in Cambodia and recovery operations in Laos in hopes of bringing home remains of Americans still missing or unaccounted-for from the war in Southeast Asia. The missions will include teams consisting of mostly Hawaii-based U.S. military specialists and Department of Defense civilians from Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory, and the Defense Intelligence Agency's Joint Field Operating Base, Hawaii (Stony Beach).

January 28, 2003 DPMO Family Update Schedule 2003
Jan 18 - San Francisco, CA :: Feb 22 - Birmingham, AL :: Mar 22 - Houston, TX :: Apr 26 - Detroit, MI :: Jun 18-21 - Washington, DC (Family updates held in conjunction with the annual government briefings) :: Jul 25-26 - Washington, DC (Family updates held in conjunction with the annual government briefings) :: Aug 23 - Seattle, WA :: Sep 20 - St. Louis, MO :: Oct 18 - Jacksonville, FL :: Nov 22 - Phoenix, AZ

January 28, 2003 The Never Ending Vigil
Every January, the Mercer County Vietnam Era Veterans Association holds a 24-hour vigil in front of the Mercer County Courthouse in honor of the American soldiers left behind after the Vietnam War.

January 27, 2003 SEA - NLF Update
Family Update

January 27, 2003 SEA - Former POW Retires After 2 Deacdes of Veteran Service
Dale Doss, a former Navy aviator who spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, is retiring this week as director of Leon County's Division of Veterans Services.

January 27, 2003 WW II - A Quest to Rewrite History
But their mother never believed the official version. And so she told her children what survivors told her -- that moments after the explosion, as they were diving into the frigid water, they glimpsed something dark and sinister. It rose to the surface for an instant, but they would never forget the sight -- a submarine conning tower painted with a mischievous red horse trotting on a yellow shield.

January 26, 2003 PGW - Iraq Knows More About Airman Says Wolfowitz
Saddam Hussein's government has information it hasn't shared about the fate of a U.S. pilot shot down over Iraq during the Persian Gulf War, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz said here Jan. 21.

January 26, 2003 KW - CW - Still Working to Bring Them Home
Strained diplomatic relations with North Korea could make recovering the remains of U.S. soldiers more difficult.

January 25, 2003 KW - CW - Sacrificed to Secrecy: Uancknowledged MIAs of the Cold War
It also encompasses secret POW-MIAs who have been sacrificed by the USG to secrecy. According to DPMO the official list of acknowledged Cold War loss incidents is 14... the total personnel 165. DPMO states in its one page total loss summary of the Cold War incidents: " Thirty-nine U.S. military aircraft and one civilian aircraft were either shot down by communist forces or crashed on the periphery of communist countries while flying operational missions during the Cold War (1946-1991). This table (with 14 loss incidents) summarizes the 14 missions whose crews were either wholly- or partially- unaccounted for when DPMO was created in 1993."

January 25, 2003 PGW - Wolfowitz: Iraq Knows More About Missing Airman
"We believe the Iraqi government knows more about Scott Speicher than they are telling. They most certainly know what happened at the crash site," Wolfowitz said in prepared remarks to attendees at a conference sponsored by the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office.

January 25, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast
News and Views :: Jen Lavery :: USS Pueblo

January 24, 2003 We Cannot Rest Until They are Found

January 23, 2003 SEA - Pentagon Update on MIA Search Brings Little Comfort
Ever since Jeanie Hasenbeck's brother, Paul, disappeared in the jungles of Vietnam 35 years ago while on patrol with his squad of soldiers, her search for him has been a morass of uncertainty and frustration.

January 22, 2003 KW - CW - Dumas, the 52 Year Search for the Truth
The paper, faded from years of handling, is for Dumas another piece of "evidence" supporting his claim that American soldiers, captured by enemy forces a half-century ago, remain captive in North Korea. The blue folder contains papers gathered during his lifelong pursuit to find a brother who never returned home from the war.

January 22, 2003 POW-MIA Flag to Fly at Courthouse
One group of casualties of every American war that receives little coverage is the number of soldiers who remain missing in action. Prior to the Vietnam War, little recognition was given to these men and women. As you read this, there are still thousands of American families who donıt know exactly what happened to their loved ones.

January 21, 2003 PGW - Clues to Speicher's Disappearance Surface
The Defense Department has obtained new intelligence that says Navy Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher, a Navy pilot shot down over Iraq in 1991 is alive and being held captive by the Iraqi government.

January 21, 2003 PGW - Speicher: Roberts Seeks Facts from Iraq
But it wasn't enough to explain details that surfaced later. The DNA the Iraqis returned after the war, presumably Speicher's, didn't match his samples. U.S. military investigators found Speicher's flight suit at his crash site, meaning he probably ejected from his plane.

January 21, 2003 PGW - Kuwaitis: New Regime is Key to Fate of MIAs
The reminders are plastered on billboards, affixed to car bumpers and printed on grocery and gas station receipts throughout this small Persian Gulf state. "Don't Forget Our POWs," they say in English and Arabic. Twelve years after the start of the first Gulf War to oust Iraqi troops from Kuwait, Kuwaitis and third-country nationals missing in action or prisoners of war from that conflict remain a sensitive political issue.

January 20, 2003 SEA - NLF Update Line
Family Update

January 20, 2003 NAF - Bits 'N' Pieces
Summary of News

January 20, 2003 PGW - US Airman Topic of Iraq-Kuwait Discussions
An American pilot shot down in the Persian Gulf War has been added to the list of 600 missing persons whose whereabouts are being discussed in renewed talks between Iraq and Kuwait, a United Nations envoy said yesterday.

January 19, 2003 Remains Sites Become a Lure for Looters
As World War II recedes into the past, one legacy of that conflict --- thousands of downed airplanes, sunken ships and the remains of servicemen still missing --- poses a new concern for those who want to record and revere history.

January 19, 2003 WW II - Liberation
His demeanor changes dramatically when he talks about the war, especially when the topic shifts to the five days he spent at Mauthausen, an Austrian extermination camp the Army veteran's 11th Armored Division helped liberate from the Nazis.

January 19, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast Schedule
News and Views :: Commander Lloyd Bucher :: Kirt Love

January 19, 2003 The Code of Conduct In-Depth
U.S. Army Promotion Board Study Guide :: Code of Conduct In-Depth

January 18, 2003 PGW - UN & Iraq Discuss missing Pilot
Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri and the U.N. coordinator charged with investigating claims of people and property missing since the 1991 Gulf War discussed the fate of a missing U.S. pilot on Saturday.

January 18, 2003 PGW - Kuwait & Iraq in Talks on Missing
The United Nations says Kuwait and Iraq are making good progress in early talks on the fate of hundreds of people still missing from the Gulf War, including a U.S. Navy pilot shot down over Iraq in the early hours of the 1991 conflict.

January 18, 2003 PGW - Speicher Trip Postponed
A group of U.S. senators including Florida's Bill Nelson, hoping to learn the fate of missing Navy pilot Scott Speicher, postponed a trip to the Middle East on Friday because of unfinished Senate business in Washington.

January 18, 2003 SWA - Red Cross Appeals Guantanamo Detainees Status
The International Committee of the Red Cross has renewed its appeal to the United States to clarify the status of hundreds of terror suspects it is holding without charge.

January 17, 2003 WW II - A Letter Home
Dear Mom and Dad, A few days ago I received my first letter from home. You can not imagine how glad I was to learn you are all well. I am as yet in good health, getting plenty of exercise each day. I am putting in 13 hours a week in classes. Among the prisoners there are several teachers.

January 17, 2003 PGW - Roberts Requests Meeting with Hussein
Senator Pat Roberts, the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has written a letter to Iraq's Saddam Hussein requesting a meeting with the Baghdad regime's U.N. representative to learn the fate of Navy pilot Captain Michael Speicher, who was shot down early in the Gulf War.

January 17, 2003 PGW - US Senate Group Leaves For Speicher Fact Finding Mission
group of U.S. senators, including Florida's Bill Nelson, is leaving Saturday for the Middle East, hoping to learn the fate of missing Navy pilot Scott Speicher, whose plane was shot down over Iraq on the first night of the 1991 Gulf War.

January 16, 2003 WW II - Time and Promises
Decades after his harrowing ordeal as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, Henry Contreras has never forgotten his quiet, compassionate friend with the thick Irish accent.

January 16, 2003 WW II - Women in Uniform: The Forgotten Soldiers
Honeyman said one of her most anxious moments while serving was when she was transferred to care for Italian and German prisoners of war. Around the same time, Honeyman said own brother had been taken as a German prisoner of war after her plane was shot down.

January 15, 2003 SEA - 3,200 War Dead from VN to be Repatriated from Cambodia
Vietnam's defence ministry says the remains of over 3,200 soldiers killed during Vietnam's decade-long occupation of Cambodia were returned and buried with full military honours in 2003.

January 14, 2003 PGW - Speicher Memorial Petition

January 13, 2003 Ex-POW Leads Rally
A massive rally of the veterans community and friends from across the nation  will take place on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 at the US Supreme Court Building in Washington, DC.

January 13, 2003 KW - CW - New Book: And The Wind Blew Cold
A first-person account of the day-to-day struggles of an American held captive in North Korea.

January 12, 2003 WW II - Nazi Camp Liberators Sought
Ordinary American GIs were the bit players who helped to end Europe's Holocaust by opening the gates of Nazi Germany's concentration camps. Now an oral-history project wants them to take center stage and offer their World War II recollections before it's too late.

January 12, 2003 SEA - New Book: The Gate
Bitterness propelled François Bizot to write an intense, dignified memoir of his time as a captive of the Khmer Rouge, The Gate

January 11, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast
News and Views :: Mitch Lerner :: Patty Hopper

January 11, 2003 WW II - Remains to be Recovered in Papua New Guinea
A search and recovery team from the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii will deploy the week of Jan. 6 to Papua New Guinea to excavate a crash site of a World War II B-24D aircraft that went down with nine service members.

January 11, 2003 WW II - US Team Begins Excavation
A U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory search and recovery team from Hawaii is to head to a Papua New Guinea rain forest this week to excavate a World War II B-24D Liberator crash site.

January 11, 2003 PGW - Weight of Evidence - He's Alive
It has been more than a decade since anyone on the First Coast saw Captain Scott Speicher. The search for the missing pilot has stayed alive for more than a decade through strong beliefs that he survived being shot down and was taken prisoner.

January 10, 2003 PGW - Iraq Holding US Pilot Alive Say Officials
The Defense Department recently obtained additional intelligence stating that a missing Navy pilot is alive and being held by the Iraqi government, according to U.S. officials.

January 10, 2003 PGW - US Investigates Reports Speicher Held Alive
The Washington Times, quoting unnamed officials, reported on Friday that the Pentagon in November obtained new intelligence reports stating that a live U.S. pilot believed to be Speicher, a Kansas City native, was being moved among 18 different locations in Iraq and was being treated by a doctor.

January 10, 2003 US $20 Billion More For War Includes POW-MIA Issues
The Pentagon will need an additional $20 billion to pay for its current military operations through September, including the ongoing war in Afghanistan and major buildup in the Persian Gulf, the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Thursday.

January 10, 2003 Girl 11, Spent Months in POW Camp
Woman recalls how, during WWII, she and her sisters were taken to the Sime Road camp - which has been marked as a historical site.

January 10, 2003 WW II - Corregidor Nurse-POW Passes
On April 7, she and others were ordered to Corregidor, an island across the bay from Bataan. The hospital there was actually one of six tunnels that were blasted through a mountain by the Army Corps of Engineer in 1938. The other tunnels were used to store food and ammunition.

January 10, 2003 Taped POW Memories Find Home at LOC
"I was beaten, stomped and cussed, but they didn't kill me." That's how the late Marvin Payne once described his 26 months as a World War II Prisoner Of War at the mercy of his German captors.

January 10, 2003 PRAVDA on Speicher, Iraq, Inspections and War
UN inspectors are at a loss: no banned weapons have been detected in Iraq. However, the Americans have more trump cards to use. One of them is American Air Force pilot Michael Scott Speicher.

January 10, 2003 Helping to Find Answers
Itıs not a veterans group; itıs not government sponsored; there are no members; it is not for profit,² says Mary. Then she defined this organization, which began in 1989: ³It is an educational group. We provide information on POWs. We provide answers.

January 10, 2003 Woman on Mission to Fly POW-MIA Flag
A DeKalb County woman has set out on a personal mission to see that the POW-MIA flag is at every public building in the county. Rachel Plunkett of Rainsville wants the flag to join the American and Alabama state flags at city halls and post offices.

January 09, 2003 KW - CW - Dumas in Japan
Watching himself on a TV newscast is nothing new to Robert Dumas, who is on a highly publicized, 50-year quest to find his missing brother, who disappeared in the Korean War.

January 09, 2003 PGW - UN on Kuwaiti POWs
Kuwait accuses Iraq of forcibly holding in captivity 605 people since the end of the 1990-1991 Gulf war, 580 of whom are subjects of Kuwait.

January 09, 2003 WW II - Great Escape Camp POW Passes
Lord Allendale was a prisoner of war at the infamous Stalag Luft III camp in Sagan, Poland for three years - the same camp from which on March 24, 1944, 80 British RAF officers and American airmen crawled through a 10-metre deep, 111 metre long tunnel in the now famous "Great Escape".

January 08, 2003 SEA - Students Honor Those Who Died
Thanks to some middle-school students in Coventry, residents throughout the state now have easy access to biographical sketches on the 612 Connecticut soldiers, sailors and airmen who died in the Vietnam War.

January 08, 2003 SEA - Rising High
A former prisoner of war in Vietnam, now an author and motivational speaker, says he hasn't had a bad day in 36 years.

January 08, 2003 PGW - Iraq to Hold Talks on War Missing
Iraq held talks Wednesday for the first time in four years with its Gulf War foes Kuwait and Saudi Arabia on the fate of hundreds of people who went missing during the 1990-1991 conflict, officials said.

January 08, 2003 WW II - War Stories That Cried To Be Told
The fence at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp It turned out that the German officer had studied at Oxford University before the war and had happy memories of England. He put the exhausted Englishman in a captured lorry, an act of mercy which certainly saved his life.

January 08, 2003 WW II - Another Bataan Survivor Passes
Former Chicago Cardinals fullback Mario "Motts" Tonelli, who emerged from the Bataan Death March weighing 90 pounds but returned to the NFL, died Tuesday of a parasitic infection contracted during World War II. He was 86.

January 07, 2003 Red, White & True
You saw ``Saving Private Ryan'' and cried like a good American. But do you really know what it means to be a patriot? Retired Air Force Col. Edward L. Hubbard does. You might not have heard of him, but Hubbard knows patriotism the way he got to know pain in a North Vietnam POW camp for more than six years in the 1960s and '70s.

January 07, 2003 Thieves Dishonor Hero James Stricklandıs life was rarely easy after he left the family farm in Harnett County for Vietnam in 1967. The former Prisoner of War died of liver failure Friday. Since his death, his vacant home has been broken into twice and over $1,000 of appliances stolen.

January 07, 2003 WW II - Final Insult to Hero Who Beat War Torturers
A WAR heroıs home in Northampton has been ransacked by thieves only days after his death. Second World War veteran Charlie Izzard, 82, died in his Spring Boroughs council flat 60 years after he was captured by Japanese forces.

January 07, 2003 From Vietnam to Afghanistan
His father fought the North as a company commander in the South Vietnamese army during the Vietnam War. After the fall of Saigon, he spent four years as a prisoner of war before escaping to the United States.

January 06, 2003 PGW - Kansas Senator Wants Meeting on Speicher
Sen. Pat Roberts has written a letter to Iraq's Saddam Hussein asking for a meeting to negotiate the release -- if he remains alive -- of a missing Gulf War pilot.

January 06, 2003 SEA - Potential Is A State Of Mind
For 2,420 days, Ed Hubbard called a bare, six-foot cell home. And from 1966 to 1973, the six and a half years retired United States Air Force colonel spent imprisoned by the North Vietnamese, Hubbard used will, perseverance, tenacity and faith to make it out alive, get home and finish his military career.

January 06, 2003 WW II - Long Overdue Medals Awarded
More than five decades after narrowly escaping death while fighting against the Japanese in World War II, two longtime Pawtucket men were finally recognized by the U.S. government and given new medals for their service.

January 06, 2003 PGW - Speicher Tribute Gets Man In Trouble
A Summit County man has gone too far in his effort to memorialize prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action. So says the Franklin Township zoning inspector. Robert Seelbach's memorial in front of his blue wood-frame house features a 32-square-foot banner paying tribute to Gulf War pilot Michael Scott Speicher, who has been declared missing in action, and "all POWs/MIAs from all wars."

January 05, 2003 Remembering Those We Left Behind by Joe Douglass
As we prepare to send tens of thousands of young men into war against Iraq, it seems only fitting that we honor and remember those left behind in prior wars.

January 04, 2003 Honoring Missing and Captive Heroes
Ken Swartz can't remember exactly how a 600-pound slab of greenstone came into his life, but he's been hauling it around for a while now, and would like to give it a final resting place at Monument Terrace. Swartz engraved the stone with the image of the flag that honors the prisoners of war and missing in action from American wars.

January 04, 2003 "Betrayed" Answers All the Questions
If you have ever wondered why over 30,000 soldiers behind the black and white POW/MIA flag have never reemerged after the Vietnam War, Korea, and the Cold War, the non-fiction work 'Betrayed' will answer all of those questions. Unfortunately, the answer to many of those questions can be summed up in two words: 'government coverup'.

January 03, 2003 SEA - What Happened to GI Patrolling DMZ in '65?
While international attention this week focused on Japanese abducted by North Korea 20 years ago, a backstage mystery involving a U.S. serviceman is waiting to unfold.

January 03, 2003 SEA - JTF-FA News Release
Negotiations for upcoming 2003 POW/MIA search and recovery operations in the Kingdom of Cambodia began on Thursday, December 5, 2002, between U.S. and KOC officials. 

January 01, 2003 A Happy, Healthy and Blessed New Year

POW-MIA Issue Update February 2003