November 2000
Summary of news for the entire month.
For recent and daily news, please go to: InterNetwork
01 NOV 00: As of October 2000 - the 'official' unaccounted-for figures are: SEA - 1,992 Persian Gulf War - unsatisfactory accounting. Korean War - 8,100+ remain unaccounted-for, 42 possible remains returned, 4 identifications. World War II - Over 78,000 remain unaccounted-for. 01 NOV 00: The Senate is urging the Clinton administration to help negotiate a settlement to lawsuits brought by American World War II POWs who contend Japanese companies mistreated them as slave labor. Administration officials say the former prisoners' lawsuits against the private companies are prohibited under a 1951 peace treaty between the United States and Japan. But the Senate voted unanimously late Tuesday to urge the State Department to open a dialogue between veterans and the companies because prisoners were forced into work for years while beaten, starved and denied medical care. American POWs have filed lawsuits focusing on treatment during the Bataan Death March in 1942 and the labor they said they performed at private Japanese steel mills and mines. The resolution is Senate Concurrent Resolution 158. For those wishing to read the Resolution, please go to - http://www.aiipowmia.com/inter1/in110200158.html
01 NOV 00: The Whitewash House has announced that President Clintn will visit Socialist Vietnam befoe his term ends. Clinton will be the first US President to visit the quasi Communist/Socialist nation since the end of America's longest war ended (officially) in 1975. Statements tout his intentiontion to visit to a POW-MIA excavation site during his visit.
02 NOV 00: Congres can't get it's act together...Slated Hearings of the Committee on International Relations on Japanese Held US POWs has been postponed with no new date in sight. After waiting for 50 years. these gentlemen should not have to wait another 50 minutes.
03 NOV 00: Curiouser and curiouser said Alice... The Clinton Badministration has appointed George Duggins, President of VVA to a Presidential Veterans commission. Hmmmmm
04 NOV 00: We've been busy... .Many things added to the AII POW-MIAarchives. Of particular note -
POW/MIA Research Project: Executive Summary and Volume I : Moscow
http://www.aiipowmia.com/koreacw/execsumm.html
http://www.aiipowmia.com/koreacw/mockbacole01.html
DOD/DPMO Policies on POWs and MIAs -
http://www.aiipowmia.com/usg/dpmomnu.html
Vietnam's Collection and Repatriation of Remains -
http://www.aiipowmia.com/usg/vcs99_1.html
1992-1996 Findings of the Cold War Working Group
http://www.aiipowmia.com/koreacw/cwwg96a.html
Act of International Conference on Vietnam 02 MAR 73
http://www.aiipowmia.com/sea/ppaact0373.html
Complaints of Violations of the Cease-Fire 10 APR 73
http://www.aiipowmia.com/sea/ppaviolate0473.html
Glomar Java Sea - Complete NTSB Maritime Casualty Report
http://www.aiipowmia.com/usg/gjsmenu.html
Nixon's Letter to Nguyen Van Thieu
http://www.aiipowmia.com/sea/nxnltr0173.html
NTM Imagery Analysis Report of POW/MIA Related Photography
http://www.aiipowmia.com/reports/ntmreport.html
Paris Peace Accords Agreement of 17 JAN 73
http://www.aiipowmia.com/sea/ppa1973.html
Peace With Honor - Nixon Radio-Television Broadcast 23 JAN 73
http://www.aiipowmia.com/sea/pcwhonor0173.html
Update - September 2000
http://www.aiipowmia.com/updates/updt0900.html
Update - October 2000
http://www.aiipowmia.com/updates/updt1000.html
Kissinger Conference on the Paris Peace Accords
http://www.aiipowmia.com/sea/kissconf0173.html
Prisoners Of War: The Search For Answers by Travis Masters -
http://www.aiipowmia.com/reports/masters.html
Whitehouse Press Releases on POWs and MIAs -
http://www.aiipowmia.com/legis/93_00x38.html
Also, all sections have been updated to include - The Korean-Cold War Section, SEA, and Reports. Please view -
SEA - http://www.aiipowmia.com/sea/
K-CW - http://www.aiipowmia.com/koreacw/
Reports - http://www.aiipowmia.com/reports/
The Alpha Menu has been expanded to facilitate ease of use for specific names and reports. it is only a small listing of material in the archives.
http://www.aiipowmia.com/alpha.html
Reminder - because of the addition and reorganization, please reset your bookmarks.
04 NOV 00: A Sad anniversary - Fifty years ago today, Roger Dumas disappeared on the other side of the world during a soon-to-be forgotten war. Dumas was just an ordinary guy, with a loving family, serving his country and the Army. His disappearance and his family's subsequent quest for truth would span 50 years and cast doubt upon almost everything uttered by the officials who came and went over a half-decade period. But the Dumas case is not ordinary. It is a prima facie case of official indifference, subterfuge and an inability or simple unwillingness to find answers and the truth. Dumas didn't just disappear like so many before and after him... Dumas was a known POW, who interacted with other POWs, later repatriated, and Dumas never made it home. For fifty years his brother has waged a private war against the official indifference and has refused to allow the powers-that-be to forget this most extraordinary man lost in a forgotten war we will never forget.
Please visit the following sites and learn more about the Dumas case, on this, the fiftieth anniversary of his becoming a POW, a Prisoner of Washington, DeCeit.
http://www.lastseenalive.com/
http://www.ink-slinger.com/dumaspow.htm
http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/nw-srv/printed/int/asia/a20956-2000jun11.htm
PENTAGON DITCHES EVIDENCE IN KOREAN WAR POW CASE http://www.aiipowmia.com/inter1/in1105000let.html
05 NOV 00: The next family update is scheduled for - 18 Nov Miami, FL.
Cast Light on Japan's War Crimes
The U.S. government has never been eager to fully document and expose the atrocities committed by Japan against Americans and other captives during World War II. On the contrary, it has sometimes made sure that information about Japan's extensive war crimes would stay hidden. In the early 1950s the United States even returned to Japan a vast intelligence trove seized by American forces at war's end, effectively assuring that this information, much of it incriminating, would not become public. Nazi Germany's crimes have been abundantly and in many cases precisely documented. Much has yet to be revealed about Imperial Japan's heinous wartime behavior.
Now Congress has acted to change that--maybe. It has passed legislation, sponsored in the Senate by Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), to create a new task force that would be charged with getting access to classified U.S. intelligence files on Japan's wartime abuse of Allied prisoners and other crimes. A similar group, looking at what U.S. agencies knew about German atrocities, has been at work for several years. But doubt has already been cast on how effective the projected search for Japanese data in U.S. files will be.
At some point in the legislative process language was changed to deny the war crimes committee power to override the 1947 National Security Act. That law allows the CIA director to keep secret any materials he believes could reveal damaging information about intelligence operations. It's easy to see how that broad authority can be misused, especially when international political considerations come into play, as they clearly have with Japan.
Historians have long noted that Washington's Cold War worries over assuring that Japan remained a cooperative ally were an incentive to downplaying or keeping secret what was known about Japanese atrocities, from its invasion of China in 1937 to Tokyo's defeat in 1945.
Scholars number the victims of Japanese war crimes in the millions, most of them Asians but many Western military and civilian captives as well. All of them--the slave laborers, those subjected to hideous biological experiments, those routinely starved and brutalized in POW camps--deserve to have the truth revealed. The war ended 55 years ago. It's time to end the immoral U.S. policy of cover-up and secrecy about Japan's wartime atrocities."
• Search Google for the keywords American Ex-POWs and you get the following -
Searched the web for American Ex-POWs. Results 1 - 10 of about 616. Search took 0.07 seconds. Category: Arts > Celebrities > F > Fonda, Jane
07 NOV 00: UK SURVIVORS of Second World War Japanese death camps will be given pounds 10,000 compensation, the Government said yesterday. After the Commons announcement, Tony Blair paid tribute to the men who endured horrendous suffering as prisoners of war in the Far East. All 16,700 survivors or their widows will each get pounds 10,000, costing a total of around pounds 165million. Until now, their only compensation had been a derisory pounds 76 a head.
• World War Two veterans and their families will travel to London on Tuesday to be reunited with diaries, photographs and service books after more than 50 years. A government official said the papers, originally taken from British prisoners of war by German soldiers, had been stored for half a century in a Russian vault having been taken to Moscow by Russian troops at the end of the war.
08 NOV 00: Many have requested info on the broadcast of Return With Honor. The documentary will be aired on the American Experience, PBS, Monday, 13 SEP 00, 9PM EST.
The official website for Return With Honor - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/honor/
For those who have written requesting information on purchasing a copy of Return With Honor -
The American Film Foundation is offering Return With Honor for $19.98 plus s/h of $5.00.
The odering page may be found at -
http://www.americanfilmfoundation.com/order/return_with_honor.html
The Return With Honor website may be found at -
http://www.returnwithhonor.com./
09 NOV 00: No. 689-00 IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 9, 2000
LARGEST MIA RECOVERY OPERATION CONCLUDES
Remains believed to be those of 15 American soldiers, missing in action from the Korean War, will be repatriated on Veterans Day, Saturday, Nov. 11, Korea time. This is the largest number of remains recovered during a single joint recovery operation. The remains will be flown on a U.S. Air Force aircraft from Pyongyang, North Korea, under escort of a uniformed U.S. honor guard to Yokota Air Base, Japan, where a United Nations Command repatriation ceremony will be held. A joint U.S.-North Korea team operating in Unsan and Kujang counties, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, recovered the remains during an operation that began Oct. 17. The area was the site of battles between Communist Chinese forces and the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, and 2nd and 25th Infantry Divisions in November 1950. The 20-person U.S. team is composed primarily of specialists from the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii (CILHI). This year's work in North Korea was the most productive to-date, recovering 65 sets of remains during five operations. As a result of negotiated agreements with North Korea, led by the Defense Department's POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO), 107 sets of remains have been recovered in 17 joint recovery operations since 1996. Five servicemen have been positively identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honors. Another 10 are nearing the final stages of the forensic identification process. Officials at DPMO have initiated contact with North Korean officials to begin preliminary planning for formal discussions in December to establish a schedule of operations for 2001. Of the 88,000 U.S. servicemembers missing in action from all conflicts, more than 8,100 are from the Korean War.
10 NOV 00: The Honolulu Star-Bulletin has created a special edition called, Bringing Them Home. The story begins at - http://starbulletin.com/2000/11/10/news/story4.html and continues with the special edition section at - http://starbulletin.com/2000/11/10/special/index.html
11 NOV 00: POW-MIA Accounting, Vietnam Trip Briefing - http://www.aiipowmia.com/inter1/in111200brief.html
13 NOV 00: N. Korea Releases Remains to U.S. - "Remains believed to be those of 15 soldiers missing in the Korean War were delivered to the U.S. military in a ceremony coinciding with Veterans Day. A U.N. honor guard removed the caskets from the plane that flew them from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, to the U.S. Yokota Air Base near Tokyo, said Master Sgt. Eudith Rodney, spokeswoman for U.S. Forces Japan. The nationalities of the dead were not immediately clear. U.S. troops led the allied forces representing the U.N. that battled North Korea in the 1950-53 war. "
Remains of Soldiers Missing Since Korean War Handed to U.S. Military - " Remains believed to be those of 15 soldiers missing in action since the Korean War were flown to Japan and handed over to the U.S. military in a ceremony Saturday to coincide with Veterans Day. The nationalities of the dead were not immediately clear. American troops led the allied forces representing the United Nations that battled North Korea in the 1950-53 war on the peninsula. Saturday's event, marking the fifth and final operation with North Korea this year, was another sign of improved relations between the former Cold War foes. It was the largest repatriation this year. The two nations began the exhumations four years ago. More than 50 sets of remains have been recovered, several of which have been identified and returned to families."
14 NOV 00: Is the following quote an inkling of the refrain from Clinton's swan song in Vietnam? (Robert) "Jones, the Pentagon chief of POW-MIA affairs, said that although he sees no end in sight to remains recovery efforts in Southeast Asia, the Vietnamese government is reluctant to allow it to continue indefinitely.
``The Vietnamese are seeking an end-date to our operations,'' Jones said."
U.S. jets collide near Hokkaido, 1 pilot missing - "SAPPORO (EDS: ADDING THAT ACCIDENT OCCURRED DURING JAPAN-U.S. JOINT AIR DRILL) One U.S. pilot was rescued and another is missing Monday after two U.S. F-16 fighters collided in midair over the Sea of Japan off southwestern Hokkaido during a Japan-U.S. joint air drill, Defense Agency officials said. Both pilots ejected immediately after the 9 a.m. collision, the officials said. One was picked up shortly afterward by a Japanese Self-Defense Forces helicopter and a Japan Coast Guard boat in waters 40 kilometers south of Okushiri Island. "
16 NOV 00: After 50 years as a 'forgotten' man, Andras Toma, 74, returned to the home of his sister. He was released from the hospital with inporved mediacal care and a prosthesis. He will remain with his sister while a home for him is built next to his brother's home.
New York Governor, George "PaTAXi" Pataki vetoed a slave labor bill that would have waived the statute of limitations for claims by Ex-POWs, slave laborers and their heirs against Japan. Read on -
"The measure would have waived the statute of limitations in New York State for filing suits for the World War II-era human rights abuses in labor camps. Pataki said that while the bill had a laudable goal, recent problems with similar measures in other states showed that the bill would not accomplish its intended purpose. Pataki said the limitations of a "virtually identical" bill enacted in California last year became apparent after a group of slave and forced labor victims filed lawsuits under the new law against several Japanese companies and their American subsidiaries. A federal court in September dismissed those lawsuits, ruling that the litigation was barred under terms of a 1951 treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan. The governor said postwar treaties barred similar lawsuits filed in New Jersey against German companies."
AII COMMENT: The 1951 San Francisco Treaty contains a clause which has not been addressed by all the judges and politicians ruling, out-of-hand, against former POWs and slave laborers. Article 26 states that: "Should Japan make a peace settlement with any state, granting greater advantage than those provided by the San Francisco Treaty, those same advantages shall be extended to the parties of the San Francisco Treaty."
With that said, it should be noted that Japan Treated with Burma in 1955 and with Switzerland shortly afterward. Burma was awarded greater advantages as far as reparations (greater than the 1951 Treaty) and Switzerland was provided with compensation for maltreatment, and personal injury and loss arising from illegal acts under the rules of war.
Former POWs, if committed to pursuing their claims against Japan, should consider invoking Article 26.
17 NOV 00: Clinton Communism Tour Update - http://www.aiipowmia.com/inter1/in111700pwbrief.html
18 NOV 00: Japan, U.S. end rescue operations for missing pilot - AOMORI, Japan "Japan and the United States on Wednesday ended their joint search and rescue operations for a missing American pilot whose F-16 jet collided with another F-16 in midair Monday over the Sea of Japan off southwestern Hokkaido. The U.S. Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture said in a statement that the lengthy search since the collision has led to the conclusion that the pilot, Capt. Warren B. Sneed, was ''lost at sea and deceased.''
Clinton hands over documents to help Vietnam find its MIAs - "U.S. President Bill Clinton presented a massive sheaf of documents to Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong on Friday to help Vietnam clarify the fate of some 300,000 soldiers listed as missing-in-action (MIA) during the Vietnam War and to secure Hanoi's further cooperation in discovering the fate of 1,498 U.S. MIAs. Clinton told Vietnamese students in an address at Hanoi National University that he presented Luong with 350,000 pages of archival materials ''that I hope will help Vietnamese families find out what happened to their missing loved ones.''
20 NOV 00: Twenty-one silver, flag-draped caskets arrived at Hickam AFB in Hawaii today. Of the 21, 15 are believed to be American military and 6 are described as "others who perished in Vietnam". The group includes 3 that were repatriated last week during Clinton's visit to Vietnam; 15 from Korea; and, 3 from Laos that were brought from Yokota Air Base in Japan on 30 OCT 00. One set is believed to be that of Col William Coltman, USAF, lost in North Vietnam in 1972. Present POW-MIA figures for SEA are: 1,992 unaccounted-for with 1,498 in Vietnam (North and South), 421 in Laos, 65 in Cambodia and 8 in China.
21 NOV 00: PRESS RELEASE -"President Delivers Computer Files to Assist Vietnamese MIA Search November 21, 2000 ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - Information Management Research, Inc. (IMR), a Colorado-based software company, played a behind-the-scenes role in President Clinton's recent visit to Vietnam. While in Hanoi, the President delivered computer files containing 350,000 pages of documents that will help the Vietnamese government search for soldiers listed as missing in action. The records, known to the military as command chronologies, show where and when American military engagements occurred during the Vietnam conflict. Air and ground battlefield coordinates will give search teams a clear indication of where to look for Vietnamese and American MIA. The documents were compiled by the U.S. Marine Corps Historical Center, Washington, D.C., by request of the Department of Defense. The files were converted electronically to CD storage, using Alchemy document database software developed by IMR. The CDs can be accessed on notebook computers that search parties can easily carry into the field. The document conversion project is ongoing at the Marine Historical Center. President Clinton indicated that the U.S. will hand over another million pages to Vietnam before year's end, in an attempt to provide the fullest possible accounting of those still on MIA roles."
22 NOV 00: "IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 22, 2000 U.S.-RUSSIA POW/MIA GROUP RENEWS COMMITMENT
The U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs renewed their commitment last week to continue cooperative efforts in search of information concerning the circumstances of loss and to establish the fate of missing servicemen. During the two-day plenary session in Moscow, the commission's co-chairmen, Maj. Gen. Roland Lajoie, USA (retired) and Gen. Major Vladimir Zolotarev, signed the executive summary to the commission's joint report on the results of work conducted from 1995-2000. The executive summary highlights the commission's accomplishments and identifies areas for further research and investigation. The commission was established in 1992 by the U.S. and Russian presidents. It is a group of senior American and Russian executive- and legislative-branch officials that meets periodically to assess and to coordinate policy, research and investigative efforts on clarifying the fate of missing American and Russian servicemen. Information of value to the commission is gained primarily through archival research and interviews of veterans, government officials, and other knowledgeable Russian and American citizens. Highlights of last week's meeting included a report in the World War II working group on the successful August 2000 visit to Kamchatka when a team led by Lajoie and Col. Konstantin Golumbovskiy, the Russian deputy chairman of the commission, positively identified a U.S. PV-1 patrol bomber missing in action since March 25, 1944. Plans for a full-scale excavation of the site scheduled tentatively for summer 2001 were initiated by Michael McReynolds, the working group's U.S. co-chairman, and his Russian counterpart. ,In the commission's Cold War working group, A. Denis Clift, the U.S. co-chairman, reported that painstaking research conducted by the Russian and U.S. sides has led to new information related to incidents of U.S. aircraft lost near the borders of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The Korean War working group discussed prospects for expanding archival research emphasizing reports from search groups involved in the recovery of U.S. aircraft and crews during the war. The concept was favorably received. The archives' management agreed to examine holdings at military museums and other facilities that may retain any records, artifacts or personal effects of U.S. service personnel from that period. The U.S. side raised once again the issue of U.S. military personnel who, based on a number of reports from a variety of sources, were sighted in the Soviet camp system (GULAG). The Russian side agreed to accept the reports, which have been incorporated into a single document, called the GULAG Study, for further examination. In the Vietnam War working group, the Russian side agreed to continue its research in various archives seeking documentation that might clarify the fate of missing in action American servicemen from the Vietnam conflict. Both sides agreed to cooperate further on evidence that Soviet soldiers also might be missing from the war in Southeast Asia. "
22 NOV 00: A Thanksgiving treat.
A report by a young lady, Catherine, age 12, is our Thanksgiving gift because the children are everyone's gift. The report will be permanently archived in our Voices Of The Future section which features reports by young people.
A happy, healthy and blessed Thanksgiving.... God Bless our POWs. MIAs and those who wait. And, Thank You Catherine.
"THE REAL PATRIOTS
When you hear that someone is a patriot what does it mean to you? Do you think of wars? Soldiers? Those are just some things involved in patriotism. A patriot is someone who is loyal, faithful, supportive, and loving to his or her country. Most soldiers are. They are willing to die for their country. You should hope that soldiers fighting wars for us are patriots. If they aren't they might just turn their back on the country and decide it is not worth their life. Most soldiers are patriots. People like David Demmon, Charles Dale, James Mclean, Robert Masoda, and David Munoz were captured in wars and never seen again. These men risked everything including not seeing their families again to fight for our country. They never came back or were heard from again. They were possibly tortured, starved, or even killed at the word of the their country. These are examples of patriots. These men are truly patriotic.
John Thompson, my great uncle, ws captured in World War two. When he was captured he had already suffered a bullet through the groin. The Germans in Europe captured him and many other American soldiers. They were forced to march for three days and anyone who stopped was executed on the spot. John Thompson weighed about 200lbs when he left for the war. He was very well filled in with a muscular body. When he came back three years later he weighed about 135lbs. He made the three-day march to the prisoner camp with a bullet hole in his groin. He suffered from exhaustion and pain like many soldiers do for their country in every war.
Now does the word patriot mean something to you? Does knowing that soldiers risked their lives for you strike you differently than before? If most of the soldiers who have, are and will fight in wars weren't patriots we might not have the countries we do today. They have risked and done so much but received so little credit. That's why patriotism is important. It is a slefless act by those who take it to the grave.
By: Catherine"
24 NOV 00: Reminder - Two excellent websites. American Ex-Prisoners of War (Am Ex-POWs), a Congressionally chartered organization for Ex-POWs and the families, provides a wealth of resources, links and informatio FAQn. Included are - History of the Am Ex-POWs, all chapters are listed by state, press releases, benefits, commendations, bio's for former POWs from WW II, Korea and Gulf War, Buddy Search, MedSearch and Links. Please visit them at - http://www.axpow.org/
The second is a vast historical archive of materials relating to Stalag Luft I. Included in this archive are stories, images, documents, recollections, letters, book and video references and links. Please vivit them at - http://www.merkki.com and http://home.att.net/~merkki/index.html
25 NOV 00: An excellent new book is available. "Fix On The Rising Sun" is the result of an exhaustive research effort into the loss of the Hawaii Clipper in 1938. According to the author's research, the missing crew and passengers were entombed in a concrete slab and are recoverable.
The book, available as an e-book, is immediately available, a paperback version will be available in the near future.
Fix On The Rising Sun
by Charles N. Hill
216 pp. (8139K) $4.95
Go to - http://www.1stbooks.com/
Select AVIATION in Category
Type in HILL in Author's name
Adobe Acrobat Reader required.
The Reader is a free download at - http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html
"About The Book:
Fix on the Rising Sun is more than a tale of piracy and murder. It is, as well, a "bill of indictment" which may ultimately close the books on one of the darker events in aviation history: the disappearance, on July 29, 1938, of Pan American Airways' trans-Pacific flying boat, Hawaii Clipper. And if a proper Epilogue is ever written, it will document the recovery, from a concrete tomb, of her nine crew and six passengers-the Ultimate MIA's of the War in the Pacific. But the Hawaii Clipper did not simply "disappear:" she was hi-jacked to Truk Atoll by radical officers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her fifteen crew and passengers were murdered and entombed within a slab of wet concrete on Dublon Island at Truk Atoll and, quite inexplicably, the United States Government continues to keep this secret for the Japanese government - and from the American People - as it has, since 1938.
The charge of piracy is well documented and supported by evidence transmitted from the Clipper during her final flight under American colors - westbound out of Guam. An exhaustive analysis of the flying boat's last five reported positions demonstrates that her flight reports were deceptive and that her falsely reported approach to Manila was in conflict with Pan American Airways' usual flight policies. Most importantly, the analysis clearly indicates Japanese involvement in piracy by radio-deception and suggests not only the Clipper's destination, but her true position at the instant that her radio signals ended abruptly - on approach to an Imperial Japanese Navy seaplane base, at Ulithi.
As to the fate of Hawaii Clipper's nine crew and six passengers, the 1964 report, asserting that they had been entombed in a concrete slab, came from two Micronesians, known to have had close ties to the Imperial Navy's Fourth Fleet, as contractors, at Truk, in the late 1930's. (As the foundation of the Fourth Fleet naval hospital, the slab was the later site of numerous medical war crimes.)
And, while this account, as related to the author by Joe Gervais (who interviewed the former Truk contractors in 1964), does not constitute "hard evidence," it surely stands, for all its wealth of detail, as consistent with the documented facts of the Clipper's loss.
Beginning with the Air Safety Board of the CAA, which left the case open in 1938, many have pursued the elusive Clipper, with limited success, and one can only speculate as to their respective reasons for eventually abandoning her. Perhaps it became apparent to each of them that there are forces, not only interested in, but actually intent upon, preventing this story from ever reaching the public eye. Most assuredly, there is reason to believe that Hawaii Clipper might unlock many doors to the past and that, beyond those doors, sixty years of history may prove to be little more than a house of cards.
If the victims of flight 103 of Pan Am's Maid of the Seas, which was destroyed by a bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, are deserving of the national memorial which has been dedicated to them, then, surely, the dead of PAA's Hawaii Clipper deserve, at the least, a decent burial. Then, too, it should be apparent that the only valid deterrent to international crime, whether committed by rebels - or by empires - lies not in threats of retribution under the Law, which is so often corrupted by policy, but only in the absolute assurance that Truth will not suffer silently for long, or lie buried, forever.
Although the primary aim of this book is the recovery of the fifteen Ultimate M.I.A.'s, Truth, alone, is a goal worthy of pursuit, as well, and if this quest is successful, then the Truth, unveiled at last, may serve both our peoples: the Americans - and the Japanese.
Charles N. Hill :
Free Preview:
OVERVIEW: The Clipper Hi-jacking of 1938-and the Ultimate M.I.A.'s
At 5:39am, in the blue-gray dawn of July 29, 1938, Pan American Airways' trans-Pacific flying boat, Hawaii Clipper, one of but three hard-pressed Martin M-130's, cast off from the terminal slip at Sumay, Guam. She was four days' flying out of Alameda, bound for Cavite on Manila Bay; then on to China, to end Trip 229 at Hong Kong, seven days out. Embarked aboard her that Friday morning were nine crew, six passengers, a moderate load of 2550 gallons of gasoline and 1138 pounds of cargo - and two stowaways. At 6:08am, just before sunrise, after what some observers thought was an unusually long take-off, she lifted from the waters of Apra Harbor, leaving Guam behind - forever.
She settled quickly into the routine of flight, and, as her passengers steeled themselves to another twelve tedious hours in the air, the expanded crew began the watch cycle, each logging time for growth with the flourishing airline. The Flight Radio Officer began the departure sequence, sending back reports, in Morse, every half-hour, in return for course confirmation from Sumay's Radio Direction Finder. Beyond mid-flight, as the Philippine stations, Radio Panay and the Makati RDF, signed on for the arrival sequence at Cavite, Radio Sumay would stand down and, signal reception permitting, serve as a monitor.
Not long after takeoff, in the ennui born of droning engines and high altitude, the two stowaways made their move. Undaunted by the odds against them, their daring plan was to convince PAA, through a brilliant trick of radio-deception, that the Clipper had come to grief in flight-on course to Cavite-even as she flew on to Ulithi and, thence, to Truk, Japan's vaunted Gibraltar of the Pacific. If they failed, then Hawaii Clipper would be intercepted farther along her route, and they, too, would die, along with the Americans.
Hi-jacked! - not that it wasn't an admitted risk: Japan was then at war with China, and PAA's Clippers had pierced the Japanese naval buffer in the Mandates. First Officer Mark Walker, a Navy Reserve carrier pilot, had mastered the Pacific, along with others, at no risk - or cost - to the U.S. Navy. And passenger Ted Wyman, also a Navy Reserve officer, was off to China as a vice president (for export) of Curtiss-Wright, whose Hawks already fought for China and whose P-40's would later fight with the Flying Tigers. It was the dawn of the Pacific War, and Pan American Clippers flew the dawn patrol.
Yet this was no act of war, but an act of piracy, committed on and over the high seas against a duly registered American merchant vessel - wings and all! As with all acts of piracy, the victims were a liability, and none would live to tell the tale, but these "pirates" were no petty buccaneers serving under the Jolly Roger. Few but officers of the Imperial Japanese Navy would have dared so much. Fewer still would have jeopardized both flag and nation but fanatic, middle-rank aviators of the Imperial Navy's hostile Fleet Faction, whose flag was Togo's provocative Rising Sun with Rays and whose nation would soon be forced to conspire in this: the first, and, perhaps the worst, of all airline hi-jackings.
And all for what? For a suitcase, filled with U.S. Gold Certificates? For an end to a study of Asian "germs," carried to America on the winds? For Japanese air superiority, assured over China? For an engine, to be copied for the Zero? For a new war plan, altered from a military land war against the Soviet Union, to a naval air war against the United States? For glory? Oh, yes - for all of these.
But, if the Japanese "pirates" were brilliant, the American navigator was inspired.
Compelled to plot two routes, one true, to Ulithi, and one false, to Cavite (both routes indistinguishable at the Makati RDF), the Clipper's Second Officer, George M. Davis, reconfigured three of his last four precisely calculated - but false - positions, to pass the word to anyone who might re-plot the route. Substituted for the Japanese-approved false positions by FRO William McCarty, as he transmitted the deceptive flight reports, the reconfigured positions were at odds with other known flight parameters and clearly invalid as elements of Davis' dead-reckoned navigation. Instead, they established three intersecting lines, each fixed precisely on a major seaplane landing area in the Japanese Mandates. By simple extension from general practices of standard navigation, these three lines of position constituted a running fix, of sorts, on three seaplane bases of the Imperial Japanese Navy, providing a clear message, for anyone who got the message, as to what had happened, who was responsible and just where the big PAA flying boat was actually headed - literally, a Fix on the Rising Sun.
Yet, even if Pan American Airways and the U.S. Navy seemed not to "get the message," it still exists for us to read, today. And of the ultimate fate of these travelers, a trace may yet remain: on Dublon Island, at Truk Atoll in the Caroline Islands (now the Federated States of Micronesia), lies a weathered slab of concrete, poured in the late summer of 1938 - all that still remains of the Imperial Navy's infamous Fourth Fleet hospital. The Japanese consider this site of medical war crimes atrocities to be a shrine, and many unknowing tourists have stood upon it and contemplated the countless thousands who died in the bitter Pacific War. But there is nothing to remind the visitors of fifteen who were murdered at the dawn of that war and who lie beneath their very feet, sealed in the concrete, it is said, "with no marks of death upon them," truly-the ultimate M.I.A.'s."
26 NOV 00: U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame Nomination:
Captain Humbert R. Versace
Sep 12, 2000
U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame Nomination Letter
INTRODUCTION
A. Purpose of Letter Captain Humbert R. Versace, Armor, is hereby nominated for induction into the US Army Ranger Hall of Fame. Captain Versace distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while a prisoner of war. Captain Versace's rigid adherence to the Ranger Creed and the Code of Conduct, and his total refusal to acquiesce to his captors demands, resulted in him being summarily executed by his Viet Cong captors on or about 26 September 1965.
28 NOV 00: Yet another South Korean POW has managed to escape. The man's arrival in Seoul was announced by South Korean intelligence. Taken prisoner in 1951, the 66 year-old man would have been roughly 17 years old when captured. During his captivity he labored in mines in Onsung on the border with China. According to South Korean sources, it is believed as many as 300 South Korean POWs are alive in the northern most areas of North Korea, with an additional 454, primarily abducted fishermen, in the southern region.
"Bodies of 110 ex-Japanese soldiers recovered in Siberia - MOSCOW, The bodies of 110 Japanese soldiers who died in labor camps in Siberia after being detained by Soviet authorities at the end of World War II have been unearthed by Japanese health ministry officials and bereaved family members, Russia's Interfax news agency reported Thursday. According to the report, AND Remains of Japanese POW in Siberia handed over to family. UTSUNOMIYA, Japan - Keiko Fujita, 69, receives the remains of her father, Kenichi Mimura, a former Japanese serviceman who died in a Siberian labor camp a year after the end of World War II, from a Health and Welfare Ministry official at her home in Utsunomiya on Nov. 29. The remains were identified in late October by doctors at Tokyo's Teikyo University through a DNA test."
29 NOV 00: "At reunion, ex-POWs say raid on empty camp was not a waste DESTIN -- (AP) -- A raid on an empty prison camp in North Vietnam was not all in vain, said former prisoner of war Howard Hill as ex-POWs and their would-be rescuers held a 30-year reunion. Hill, who had been shot down in 1967, watched a U.S. jet fighter, the first he had seen in two years, streak across the night sky Nov. 20, 1970, while a POW at Camp Faith. He knew something was up, but was unaware that the F-105 Thunderchief was part of an assault on the Son Tay prison camp 11 miles away. The two POW camps were among many spread across North Vietnam. The former Air Force pilot-navigator reminisced during a five-day reunion through Sunday for about 300 Son Tay raiders and ex-POWs at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort near this Florida Panhandle city. Sandestin is only about 20 miles from Hurlburt Field and adjacent Eglin Air Force Base where the raid was planned and rehearsed. Hill, who lives in nearby Fort Walton Beach and serves on the Okaloosa County School Board, said the raid by Air Force and Navy air crews and Army special forces troops was not a failure in his mind. He said it caused the North Vietnamese to round up POWs from outlying camps and concentrate them at one prison, dubbed the Hanoi Hilton. ``That gave us a chance to standardize our policies, the policies to make sure we were all operating off the same sheet of music,'' Hill said. ``It made us stronger. It was the reason we formed the 4th POW Wing.''
Critics still debate why U.S. intelligence was unaware that the 61 prisoners at Son Tay, 23 miles outside Hanoi, had been moved several months before the raid because a river flood had tainted its water supply. Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Larry Ropka, of Mary Esther, was on the mission's planning team. He said a decision was made to go on the chance some prisoners were still there. ``There was much concern about the morale of the POWs,'' Ropka said. ``This was a token, but the message was important.'' The reunion included a Thanksgiving dinner and a clambake hosted by former presidential candidate Ross Perot. Other dignitaries included former Defense Secretary Melvin Laird. ``We do this as a matter of remembrance of a great group of people who risked their lives for the mission,'' said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Leroy Manor, of Shalimar, who commanded the mission.
No. 714-00
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WWII MARINE RAIDERS IDENTIFIED, RETURNING HOME
The remains of 19 World War II Marine Raiders killed in action on Butaritari Island (Makin Atoll) and listed as missing in action since August 1942 were recently identified, and will be returned to their families for burial.
The remains are those of:
* Capt. Gerald P. Holtom, Palo Alto, Calif.
* Sgt. Clyde Thomason, Atlanta, Ga.
* FM1C. Vernon L. Castle, Stillwater, Okla.
* Cpl. I.B. Earles, Tulare, Calif.
* Cpl. Daniel A. Gaston, Galveston, Tex.
* Cpl. Harris J. Johnson, Little Rock, Iowa
* Cpl. Kenneth K. Kunkle, Mountain Home, Ark.
* Cpl. Edward Maciejewski, Chicago, Ill.
* Cpl. Robert B. Pearson, Lafayette, Calif.
* Cpl. Mason O. Yarbrough, Sikeston, Mo.
* Pfc. William A. Gallagher, Wyandotte, Mich.
* Pfc. Ashley W. Hicks, Waterford, Calif.
* Pfc. Kenneth M. Montgomery, Eden, Wis.
* Pfc. Norman W. Mortensen, Camp Douglas, Wis.
* Pfc. John E. Vandenberg, Kenosha, Wis.
* Pvt. Carlyle O. Larson, Glenwood, Minn.
* Pvt. Robert B. Maulding, Vista, Calif.
* Pvt. Franklin M. Nodland, Marshalltown, Iowa
* Pvt. Charles A. Selby, Ontonagon, Mich.
The Marines were members of the Marine Corps' 2nd Raider Battalion, killed during the August 17-18, 1942, raid on Japanese-held Butaritari Island, during which an estimated 83 Japanese soldiers were killed. Lt. Col. Evans F. Carlson commanded the Raiders during the operation, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's son, Capt. James Roosevelt, was the operation's second-in-command. Ferried to the island by submarine and landing on and departing Butaritari by rubber boats, the Marines were unable to evacuate the bodies of their fallen comrades. With the assistance of island inhabitants, including a man who assisted in the burial of the Marines in 1942, a recovery team from the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii (CILHI) uncovered a mass grave and excavated the remains in November and December 1999. That operation was preceded by an initial investigation in August 1998 and an unsuccessful recovery effort in May 1999. The U.S. Marine Raider Association provided invaluable assistance with firsthand information and documentation about their combat on Butaritari. In late 1999, the CILHI began an exhaustive forensic identification process, including the use of mitochondrial DNA, to confirm the identities of the Marines. Marine Corps officials, using historical military records and more modern search techniques, located the next of kin of each of the Marines. Arrangements for the transportation and burial of the Marines are underway, in consultation with the families. The first burial is expected to be that of Cpl. Yarbrough in Sikeston, Mo. in December. Among the remains recovered are those of Sgt. Clyde Thomason, the first enlisted Marine awarded the Medal of Honor during World War II. The identification of these Marines contributes to the ongoing effort by the Department of Defense to locate and identify more than 88,000 American service members who remain missing in action from World War II, the Cold War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. "
30 NOV 00: Defense POW/MIA Weekly Update MIA RECOVERY OPERATION CONCLUDES IN NORTH KOREA
Remains believed to be those of 15 American soldiers, missing in action from the Korean War, were repatriated on Veterans Day. This equals the largest number of remains recovered during a single joint recovery operation. The remains were flown on a U.S. Air Force aircraft from Pyongyang, North Korea, under escort of a uniformed U.S. honor guard to Yokota Air Base, Japan, where a United Nations Command repatriation ceremony was held. A joint U.S.-North Korea team operating in Unsan and Kujang counties, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, recovered the remains during an operation that began Oct. 17. The area was the site of battles between Communist Chinese forces and the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, and 2nd and 25th Infantry Divisions in November 1950. The 20-person U.S. team is composed primarily of specialists from the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii (CILHI). This year's work in North Korea was the most productive to-date, recovering 65 sets of remains during five operations. As a result of negotiated agreements with North Korea, led by the Defense Department's POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO), 107 sets of remains have been recovered in 17 joint recovery operations since 1996. Five servicemen have been positively identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honors. Another 10 are nearing the final stages of the forensic identification process. Officials at DPMO have initiated contact with North Korean officials to begin preliminary planning for formal discussions in December to establish a schedule of operations for 2001. Of the 88,000 U.S. servicemembers missing in action from all conflicts, more than 8,100 are from the Korean War.
PRESIDENT VISITS CRASH SITE EXCAVATION IN VIETNAM President Clinton visited a crash excavation site believed to hold the remains of Captain Lawrence Evert on November 18th during his trip to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The President was accompanied by Captain Evert's sons, Daniel and David. During this solemn occasion the President remarked, "At this spot 33 years ago this month, Captain Lawrence Evert's F-105 was shot down. No parachute was seen, the area was heavily defended and there was no chance for a search. "Today, I am honored to be here with Captain Evert's sons, Dan and David, and I thank them for coming. We believe we owe them, and all Americans like them, what they came here for -- a chance, finally, to take their father home." During his visit the President praised the people of the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting and the Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii for all they do to "bring home comrades fallen in . . . war." The President noted that our nation has made a commitment to achieve the fullest possible accounting for our missing service personnel. He also noted that meeting this commitment it is only possible through the cooperation and support of the Vietnamese government and the Vietnamese people. The President thanked the Vietnamese people for their work in this endeavor, and expressed the thanks of the American people to the Vietnamese government for its support. The President continued by stating, "Once we met here as adversaries; today we work as partners. We are committed to keep at it until we bring every possible fallen hero home. In the process, we are committed to building a new future for the children of Vietnam and the children of the United States, a future of friendship and cooperation. "While working together to recover those who were lost in a long-ago war, we reduce the chances that any of our children will know war." Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Robert L. Jones accompanied the President during his visit to Vietnam. Complete text of the President's remarks, as well as transcripts of all press conferences and interviews may be found on the White House web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov.
DPMO ISSUES MONOGRAPH ON KOREAN WAR ACCOUNTING EFFORTS As part of the Korean War 50 Year Commemoration DPMO has compiled a short history entitled, "The Effort to Account for U.S. Servicemen Missing from the Korean War." The report covers the POW negotiations that occurred in the first Truce Tent meetings in 1951, the United Nations Command-brokered POW and Remains Returns that occurred in 1953, 1954, and the later period of 1990-1994, as well as the more recent remains recovery efforts in North Korea. The report also highlights investigative efforts in Russia with the U.S. - Russia Joint Commission and negotiations with the People's Republic of China on the POW/Missing Personnel issue. As a sponsor of the Korean War 50 Year Commemoration, DPMO is issuing this report as one of its outreach contributions to the commemoration. The report will be available shortly on this web site.
DPMO HOSTS FAMILY UPDATE IN MIAMI The November Family Update was held this past weekend in Miami and included over 50 family members of MIA servicemen from all conflicts. The attendees came from several states to join the government specialists from DPMO, CILHI, JTF-FA, AFDIL and the military service casualty offices. These updates are held monthly in cities across the U.S. This marks the fifth year that DPMO and other government specialists have presented this updated information to family members. Approximately 1,750 families of missing in action servicemen have attended these meetings. These all-day Saturday briefings were preceded by a Friday evening session designed especially for veterans and members of the general public. The Friday briefings lasted approximately two hours, and were open to the public. Experts presented information on the latest technologies used to identify remains, including mitochondrial DNA. Archival research and other topics were also presented to the families. At the end of the all-day sessions, families were invited to individually review details of their own cases. This initiative assists families who are unable to travel to Washington, D.C. to review their individual case files. Cities visited in recent months include Pittsburgh, Seattle, Spokane, St. Louis, Omaha, Atlanta, Portland, Pensacola, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Philadelphia, Detroit, Jacksonville, Memphis, Sacramento, Oklahoma City, and Birmingham, among others. This was the final Family Update for 2000. The next Family Update will be held in Las Vegas on January 20th. Families who wish to attend that update should contact their military service casualty officers immediately to register for the meeting.
U.S.-RUSSIA POW/MIA GROUP RENEWS COMMITMENT The U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs renewed their commitment last week to continue cooperative efforts in search of information concerning the circumstances of loss and to establish the fate of missing servicemen. During the two-day plenary session in Moscow, the commission's co-chairmen, Maj. Gen. Roland Lajoie, USA (retired) and Gen. Major Vladimir Zolotarev, signed the executive summary to the commission's joint report on the results of work conducted from 1995-2000. The executive summary highlights the commission's accomplishments and identifies areas for further research and investigation. The commission was established in 1992 by the U.S. and Russian presidents. It is a group of senior American and Russian executive- and legislative-branch officials that meets periodically to assess and to coordinate policy, research and investigative efforts on clarifying the fate of missing American and Russian servicemen. Information of value to the commission is gained primarily through archival research and interviews of veterans, government officials, and other knowledgeable Russian and American citizens. Highlights of last week's meeting included a report in the World War II working group on the successful August 2000 visit to Kamchatka when a team led by Lajoie and Col. Konstantin Golumbovskiy, the Russian deputy chairman of the commission, positively identified a U.S. PV-1 patrol bomber missing in action since March 25, 1944. Plans for a full-scale excavation of the site scheduled tentatively for summer 2001 were initiated by Michael McReynolds, the working group's U.S. co-chairman, and his Russian counterpart. In the commission's Cold War working group, A. Denis Clift, the U.S. co-chairman, reported that painstaking research conducted by the Russian and U.S. sides has led to new information related to incidents of U.S. aircraft lost near the borders of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The Korean War working group discussed prospects for expanding archival research emphasizing reports from search groups involved in the recovery of U.S. aircraft and crews during the war. The concept was favorably received. The archives' management agreed to examine holdings at military museums and other facilities that may retain any records, artifacts or personal effects of U.S. service personnel from that period. The U.S. side raised once again the issue of U.S. military personnel who, based on a number of reports from a variety of sources, were sighted in the Soviet camp system (GULAG). The Russian side agreed to accept the reports, which have been incorporated into a single document, called the GULAG Study, for further examination. In the Vietnam War working group, the Russian side agreed to continue its research in various archives seeking documentation that might clarify the fate of missing in action American servicemen from the Vietnam conflict. Both sides agreed to cooperate further on evidence that Soviet soldiers also might be missing from the war in Southeast Asia.
DPMO ASSISTS VIETNAM'S PERSONNEL ACCOUNTING EFFORTS The President's delegation presented to Vietnamese officials documents from the U.S. government which may provide some resolution to the fates of some 300,000 Vietnamese who were killed in action, but whose bodies were not recovered. In August 1999 the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs, Robert L. Jones, hosted a delegation of four senior archivists from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. This visit permitted them to research U.S. government archives for information that could lead to resolving some of the over 300,000 cases of Vietnamese personnel still unaccounted-for from the war in Southeast Asia. At the time of the visit, the Vietnamese learned that the History and Museum Division of Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps contracted to have more than 1.2 million pages of documents from the war digitized onto CD ROM format. DPMO assisted the Vietnamese in obtaining copies of the initial installment of 45 CD ROMs to take back to Vietnam at the conclusion of their visit, and pledged to provide other installments of the discs when they become available from the Marine Corps. Each CD ROM contains 15,000 pages of documents on the war in Southeast Asia. The documents include mission reports from squadrons, situation reports, and operational messages of that historical period. The second installment of 24 CD ROMs was recently published. They contain 360,000 pages of historical documents from the Marine Corps. The final installment of 81 discs is to be completed at the end of November, and copies will be forwarded to DPMO, which will send them to Vietnam for retention and inclusion in their archival repository.
Published by the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office
2400 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-2400 (703) 602-2102 www.dtic.mil/dpmo"
30 NOV 00: REMINDER -
DOD/DPMO Family Updates - There are no December updates. Next meeting is scheduled for 2001 - Jan 20 - Las Vegas, NV
POW-MIA Issue Update December 2000