November 2002

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

November 30, 2002 SWA - PRAVDA Reports US POWs Captured in Afgahnistan (Again)
""Pravda" is Russian for "Truth." "Izvestia" is Russian for "News." Those were the two newspapers the Communists printed. The Russians had a saying: "There is no pravda in Izvestia and no izvestia in Pravda."

November 29, 2002 SEA - The Fix Is In: An Article by Michael Gaddy
When 591 American Prisoners were released in the spring of 1973, it became evident Kissinger had lied to the families. No prisoners held by the Chinese, Lao or Cambodians were released, even though the Pathet Lao had stated on numerous occasions they held "tens of tens" of Americans. Kissinger had not even negotiated for the release of these Americans.

November 28, 2002 USN/USMC Offers POWs Step Up
Until this month, only the Army granted all prisoners of war a one-grade promotion, retroactive to the day they were captured.

November 27, 2002 WW II - At the Hands of the Japanese
The secret ceremony at the SAS barracks at an Auckland military base where the memorial was unveiled was so charged that the tough old soldier struggled to contain a tear. At 81, the Aucklander finally has somewhere to lay a wreath on Anzac Day, to salute mates who, in his eyes, have finally been acknowledged as having existed.

November 26, 2002 A POW's Story
Then only 19, the Iranian was too preoccupied with the rout of his military unit and his impending capture by the Iraqis. And for the next 27 months he was a prisoner of war.

November 26, 2002 Australia Builds $2 Million POW Memorial
The memorial will be the first of its kind outside Canberra and will pay tribute to almost 35,000 Australians held in enemy camps during four separate conflicts.

November 26, 2002 SEA - Remembering An American Hero
The bracelet is made of stainless steel, the kind of metal that does not wear out. It wraps around the right wrist of Memphis Grizzlies general manager Dick Versace in memory of his brother, a silent tribute to an American hero.

November 25, 2002 SEA - Vet Claiming POW Status Branded Fraud By Others
A Vietnam War veteran whose account of the conflict was branded a fraud by former American soldiers believes he is the victim of a conspiracy to discredit him because he is British.

November 24, 2002 KW - CW - Dumas Case to be "Looked Into"
U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, has agreed to "look into" the matter of Korean War MIA Roger Dumas at the request of his brother, Canterbury resident Robert Dumas.

November 23, 2002 NAF Bits 'N' Pieces
Summary of News

November 23, 2002 SEA - NLF Update Line
Family Update

November 23, 2002 Ex-POW Pledge of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the flag ... I am an American. I was a Prisoner of War. I have served my country. I need no one to tell me what allegiance I owe to my flag, to my country, to my home. Of the United States of America ... This is my country. I have fought for it. I have been imprisoned for it, and many have died for it.

November 22, 2002 WW II - How A Nation Ignored It's Heroes
Thousands of captured men survived hell in Nazi camps only to be snubbed at home. The author of a new book revealing the POWs' plight salutes their bravery.

November 21, 2002 WW II - POW Camp Memories
łThey had only one prisoner who escaped, and he made it only as far as the back yard of a house near the prison camp,˛ recalls Joe Boudreaux of the 1940s military prisoner of war camp located on West Main Street not far from the Houma city limits.

November 21, 2002 WW II - Effort May Save POW Camps
Organizers hope to preserve sites where Japanese Americans were interned.

November 20, 2002 SEA - The Flight That Never Came
Thomas Tyler McGlohorn met Thomas Moore, his great-grandfather and namesake, the same way his mother did - by gently rubbing the engraved letters of his name on the American Veterans Traveling Tribute Wall honoring the lost but not forgotten soldiers of the Vietnam War.

November 20, 2002 SEA - Britsh Author Claims US POW Status - DPMO Says 'No Way'
A British author who claims he was captured, tortured and then escaped from a prisoner of war camp while serving with the US army during the Vietnam war has been dismissed as a fraud by the Pentagon.

November 19, 2002 Churchill POW Revolver & Flask Go to Auction
But the centerpiece of the sale will be a revolver and hip flask Churchill had with him for "moral support" during his epic escape from a Boer prisoner-of-war camp in 1899 having been sent to South Africa to cover the war for the Morning Post newspaper.

November 19, 2002 SEA - Bracelet, Story Linked Years Later
Susan Detwiler was a fifth-grader in Alabama in 1969 when she reached into a box of silver POW/MIA bracelets and pulled one out.

November 19, 2002 SEA - Ho Chi Minh Trail to Become Tourist Attraction
Vietnam plans to turn the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the famous Communist supply line during the Vietnam war, into a tourist attraction.

November 18, 2002 SEA - Answers 30 Years Later
The helicopter never returned, and searches for the missing men and aircraft were unsuccessful.

November 18, 2002 WW II - Former POW Gets Public Support Al Trotter, who spent 268 days as a prisoner of war in Germany after his plane was shot down, missed out on his pension because he applied too late.

November 18, 2002 WW II - Dark Piece of History
Indeed, four of the visitors know the area most for its horrendously ugly past, for the suffering they and their comrades endured 60 years ago. These men know the location by a different name: Kinkaseki, site of one of World War II's worst prisoner of war camps. It is a name that they know all too well, having spent years living under atrocious conditions and working as slaves for the Japanese Imperial Army.

November 18, 2002 SEA - Remembering
Army Private First Class Robert Charles "Chuck" O'Hara was just three months shy of ending his one-year tour of duty in Vietnam and celebrating his 20th birthday with family in Lost Nation in 1969 when the helicopter he wasn't even supposed to be on went down over enemy-occupied territory in South Vietnam.

November 15, 2002 WW II - POW Medal Comes 45 Years Later
After being captured by German soldiers and held for three days during World War II, Staff Sgt. Charles A. Lawson of G Company, 315th Infantry Regiment, found himself in a precarious situation.

November 14, 2002 WW II - An Unknown History
"A War Story" is a docudrama that tells the story of a Canadian doctor, Major Ben Wheeler, and his time in a Taiwan prisoner-of-war camp after being captured by the Japanese during World War II. In Nazi POW camps, 5 percent of prisoners were killed or died in captivity. That figure jumps to 25 percent in Far East POW camps. Wheeler did his best to assist his fellow soldiers interned in Taiwan as they fought disease, starvation and torture.

November 13, 2002 KW - CW - Ex-POW Recalls 32 Months of Hell
A Mayflower man who writes of his travail as a prisoner of war during the Korean War creates the illusion of immediacy in a book that traces his path of horror.

November 11, 2002 WW II - Memories
Joseph Frindik's experiences as a soldier and prisoner of war during World War II still brings laughter and tears to the 82-year-old Live Oak Village resident and Albany native.

November 11, 2002 A Hero With your first cup of extra strong, Monday morning coffee, take time this Veterans Day to remember the thousands of men and women who have died or suffered defending the United States ‹ especially our POWs and MIAs.

November 11, 2002 Remembrances Carried on Wrists
At the height of the war in Vietnam, the names of American soldiers held captive or missing in action were engraved on metal bracelets as a remembrance of their suffering.

November 11, 2002 Not Buying Vietnam
Activist says former enemy nation isn't cooperating with MIA search, supports boycott

November 11, 2002 The Speicher Case Revisited
Eleven years later, after exhaustively combing the little evidence that exists in the case, Speicher's friends and family insist he is still alive. Even his wife, who remarried in 1992, believes her first husband survived the plane crash, according to her lawyer.

November 11, 2002 The Neverending Search
In his hands, Sparky Corradina holds an aging file he believes shows the location of 11 missing airmen whose bomber crashed in the Himalayas during World War II. To this day, the wreck has not been recovered.

November 11, 2002 Russian Delegation Joins Ceremony
"...it's time for the world to join and help each other on this issue. I've talked to the Russians. Their POWs and MIAs are just as important to them as ours are to us. ... It's time to bring them home."

November 11, 2002 How Many Names
How many names of prisoners of war and men missing in action does it take to make us remember? The answer was blowing in the wind on Sunday afternoon, as 255 black balloons were released into the gray November sky, each bearing the name of a POW/MIA from Pennsylvania.

November 11, 2002 Memories Still Linger
Because memories of being a POW during World War II are so graphic, Sangermano says he may not be able to finish his speech without breaking down into tears.

November 11, 2002 Recalling Captivity
Until three years ago when failing eyesight forced him to stop driving, 81-year-old Thomas J. Cronin proudly displayed his unique vanity license plate, which often became a conversation piece in parking lots. ``POW 1003,'' it read, noting that he was a prisoner of war for 1,003 days.

November 11, 2002 Families of Missing Seek Answers
"There is nothing left of him," said Lopez, a 65-year-old retired postal worker from Lakewood. "If I could just have something of his - his pack, some personal pictures, even his boots. But nothing has ever come." And while the nation carries out the solemn rituals of Veterans Day - visiting cemeteries, watching parades, attending memorial services - the families of soldiers whose remains have never been recovered find themselves revisiting unanswered questions.

November 10, 2002 SEA - NLF Update
Family Update

November 09, 2002 PGW - Speicher Stories
President Bush has signed the Speicher Bill into law, granting asylum to any Middle Eastern national who returns an American prisoner of war from Desert Storm, the White House said yesterday.

November 08, 2002 SEA - Never Losing Faith
Since childhood, she'd kept faith with a stranger missing in Vietnam.

November 07, 2002 WW II - A Brave Soldier's Tale
Heroism doesn't just come on the battlefield. Sometimes it comes through sheer survival. For three years, Paul Sandoval was held prisoner by the Japanese during World War II.

November 07, 2002 WW II - Memories Still Painful
Sangermano was one of 130,000 soldiers taken prisoner during World War II. From 1946 to 1947, he spent a difficult year in Stalag VIIA and Stalag IIB, two German labor camps, working in fields picking potatoes and fixing German railways from sunrise to sunset.

November 06, 2002 SEA - Identifications
The remains of three U.S. soldiers previously unaccounted for from the war in Vietnam have been identified and will be buried as a group at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, Nov. 8. They are Capt. Ronald D. Briggs, Philadelphia, Sgt. 1st Class Robert C. O'Hara, Lost Nation, Iowa; and Maj. David E. Padgett, Washington, Ind.

November 01, 2002 Missing Guantanamo Soldier Declared Dead
The Department of Defense today announced that Sgt. Ryan D. Foraker, 31, of Logan, Ohio, has been declared dead. Foraker was reported missing from his unit in Guantanamo, Cuba, on Sep. 24. Exhaustive ground, sea, and air searches were conducted in an effort to locate him but were unsuccessful.

POW-MIA Issue Update December 2002