November 2003
Summary of news for the entire month.
For recent and daily news, please go to: InterNetwork
November 30, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio
News and Views :: Ms. Denise Nichols :: Mr. Jasper Page
November 29, 2003 WW II Recovery Mission Part I
Today, a US-Russian expedition is starting its search for the body of the US pilot Richard Brevik on Shumshu Island, which is one of the Kuriles. Lt. Brevik was killed in a battle against the Japanese in 1945. Since the territory has changed hands after WWII, it has turned out that his grave is on the Russian territory now.
November 29, 2003 WW II Recovery Mission Part II
The story of the search for Lt. Brevik remains unfinished. We do not know when the search will be over. However, we do want to believe that this story will end with a very spectacular finale. Mysterious coincidences and unexpected details surface one after another, as if fate itself is giving us a sign to wait just a bit longer.
November 29, 2003 KW - CW Sainthood Sought For POW Priest
Supporters of santhood for a Kansas-born Catholic priest who died a prisoner of war in Korea have started a formal campaign to raise money and gather the information the Vatican requires for canonization.
November 29, 2003 Golf & War
Inside the German prisoner-of-war camps of World War II, allied servicemen made clubs from scrap metal and balls from pinecones wrapped in old shoe leather, and improvised games where hitting into the rough meant risking machine gun fire from the guard tower.
November 29, 2003 WW II Medals Bring Family Closure
WWII soldier's death on troop ship shrouded in secrecy
November 29, 2003 JCSD September 2003 Moscow Meetings
Mr. Jerry D. Jennings, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Prisoners of War/Missing Personnel Affairs), visited Moscow, Russian Federation, from September 9-13, 2003. His primary purpose was to accomplish a command visit to the only field element of the Defense Prisoners of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)the office of the Joint Commission Support Directorate (JCSD) at the American Embassy Moscow.
November 28, 2003 WW II Family Waited 62 Years for Loved One
More than six decades after Navy Fireman 2nd Class Payton L. Vanderpool Jr. was killed at Pearl Harbor, his remains will finally return home for burial in the family plot in northwest Missouri.
November 28, 2003 WW II Private Eye Finds Bomber Crash Answers
Partly because of her efforts, a burial ceremony honoring World War II bomber pilot Lt. Walt Whitman and his crew of six took place earlier this month at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
November 27, 2003 WW II Single Tooth Helps ID Punchbowl Remains
It was just before 8 on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, and Payton L. Vanderpool Jr., a farm boy from Missouri, was on duty stoking wood into a boiler on a pier in Pearl Harbor.
November 27, 2003 SEA MIAs and VIPs
Pentagon brass deny that they're giving special treatment to the suspected remains of Charles Dean, brother of presidential hopeful Howard Dean.
November 27, 2003 SEA Ceremony Marks Loss
Howard Dean's eyes followed the flag-draped container as four soldiers slowly marched it yesterday from a mammoth cargo plane past a military color guard onto the back of a school bus. Dean did not cry, or reach for his mother's hand, but simply swallowed hard, once, during the 15-minute ceremony.
November 26, 2003 OEF DoD Lists 5 DSTWN Casualties
November 26, 2003 SEA Dean/Sharman Repatriation Ruckus
Active duty soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines are upset over being forced take part in a military repatriation ceremony today for remains believed to be those of the non-military brother of presidential candidate Howard Dean, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
November 26, 2003 WW II Pearl Harbor Sailor Identified
One elderly sister called it a miracle and another said she had finally found closure after the body of their brother, a sailor killed at Pearl Harbor 62 years ago, was identified.
November 25, 2003 SEA Lao Local Assisted in Recovery
A Laotian villager helped lead investigators to the area where human remains believed to be of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean's brother and an Australian friend were exhumed earlier this month, the head of the team said yesterday.
November 24, 2003 WW II Russian Crash Crew Buried at Arlington
The remains of seven servicemen whose plane crashed in Russia after taking off from Alaska during World War II were buried Thursday in Arlington National Cemetery.
November 23, 2003 KW - CW Keeping Watch for the Missing When Mermon Stepp turned 17 in 1950, he asked his parents' permission to join the Army. He shipped out to the Korean War near Christmas of that year. Within weeks of arriving, he disappeared in battle.
November 23, 2003 POW- MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast
News and Views :: Mr. Bill Cavalieri :: Mr. John Devitt
November 22, 2003 SEA 3 MIA Cases - Remains Returning to JPAC-HI for ID
The United States will repatriate human remains possibly those of missing Australian journalist Neil Sharman and of Americans who went missing in Laos during the Vietnam war.
November 22, 2003 WW II Community Remembers German POWs
He only spent a week here while he was a prisoner of war, but Ernst Floeter only has fond memories of Fort Custer.
November 22, 2003 PGW National Traveling Tribute to Scott Speicher
There's a flag flying on the First Coast in memory of missing Jacksonville pilot Captain Scott Speicher. Captain Speicher's plane was shot down during the Gulf War and the flag is a national tribute that's going all over the country helping to keep Speicher's memory alive.
November 22, 2003 WW II A Brother Remembered
Dallas Schear, like his brother Robert, fought in Germany in World War II. Only Dallas came home.
November 22, 2003 WW II Remains Interred
The remains of seven servicemen whose plane crashed in Russia after taking off from Alaska during World War II were buried this week in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
November 21, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio
News and Views :: Mr. Bill Cavalieri :: Mr. John Devitt
November 21, 2003 SEA Civilians Still Missing
Now that Charles Dean's body is being returned to his family -- which includes brother Howard Dean, Democratic presidential contender -- the list of civilians missing from the Vietnam War drops to 34.
November 21, 2003 SEA Monument to POW-MIA
Larry Maysey was only 20 on Nov. 9, 1967, when he died after his Army helicopter crashed in a Laotion jungle while trying to rescue a team of special forces troops.
November 21, 2003 WW II Bataan Appreciation Day
USS Bataan (LHD 5) honored the defenders of the Bataan Peninsula from World War II and crewmembers from the original USS Bataan (CVL 29), Nov. 7. Bataan Appreciation Day began with a welcome from Bataan's Commanding Officer, Capt. Earle Yerger, followed by a tour of the ship.
November 21, 2003 WW II Navy Air Crew Found, Identified
The remains of seven American servicemen missing in action from World War II have been found in Russia, identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honors. A group burial of the remains will be held at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday, Nov. 20.
November 21, 2003 SEA Woman Meets Her Bracelet POW
As a high school student in New Orleans during the Vietnam War, Margaret Humphris paid $1 to pluck a POW/MIA bracelet from a box. She didn't know the prisoner of war whose name was engraved on the band. But she wore the bracelet for years.
November 20, 2003 WW II DoD News Release
Crew of World War II U.S. Navy Aircraft Found, Identified
November 20, 2003 SEA A Picture to Go With the Bracelet
ASHLAND Walking into Allyn's Jewelers in downtown Ironton, the seventh-grader walked up to the display case and pointed. That one. Not the one with diamonds, nor the gold or silver ones, but the plain, stainless steel band adorned with nothing but a name, a rank and a date.
November 20, 2003 SEA Interview With Ian Sharman
One of the longest running mysteries of the wars in Vietnam and Laos has been solved. The remains of a young Australian and a young American, shot dead 30 years ago by Communist guerrillas, have been found in a rice field in central Laos.
November 20, 2003 KW - CW Blood Samples Give Hope
The family of Sgt. Loyd Alumbaugh has waited more than 50 years for a funeral service that would bury his remains, but not his memory.
November 20, 2003 IRAQ Black Hawk Casualty Figures Revised
News accounts regarding the double Black Hawk loss have corrected figures: one chopper - 12 on board, 7 KIA and 5 WIA; second chopper - 10 on board, 10 KIA.
November 20, 2003 KW - CW Honoring A Mother's Wish
Bob Dumas promised his mother just before she died that he would find her youngest son, his youngest brother, if it took the rest of his life.
November 19, 2003 WW II Crash Found in Northern Kurils
"This story touched my heart," said Casey, who has no family in the military but volunteered her services to the Navy two years ago after reading about the military's unsuccessful search for relatives of a World War II pilot.
November 19, 2003 SEA Dean Found Wearing POW Bracelet
Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean said Tuesday that the search for the long-lost remains of his younger brother may be over with the discovery of bones, a sock, a pair of shoes and a bracelet buried in a Laotian rice field.
November 19, 2003 WW II Ship with 645 MIAs May Have Been Found
The deaths of Sydney's crew account for more than 35 per cent of all Australian navy personnel lost during World War II, with the mystery remaining for more than half a century as to how the smaller German vessel managed to sink the cruiser.
November 19, 2003 SEA Laotian Grave Ends 29-Year Mystery
Presidential candidate Howard Dean reacted sombrely to the news that the remains of his brother Charlie and his companion, the Australian journalist Neil Sharman, may have been recovered - 29 years after they were murdered by guerillas in Laos.
November 19, 2003 SEA NLF Update Line
Family News Update
November 18, 2003 SEA Sharman, Dean Remains Found in Laos
THE remains of an Australian journalist shot almost 30 years ago have been found by United States authorities. The bodies of Neil Sharman and American tourist Charles Dean, brother of front-running US presidential candidate Howard Dean, have been uncovered in a grave in central Laos.
November 18, 2003 IRAQ Pentagon Limits Funeral Coverage
The Army tightened rules yesterday on press coverage of funerals at Arlington National Cemetery, directing that reporters be kept far enough away from the graveside that they would likely be unable to hear a chaplain's eulogy.
November 17, 2003 KW - CW POW-MIA Talks Concluded
The Department of Defense announced today that U.S. and North Korea representatives concluded talks about arrangements to conduct five joint operations to recover the remains of American servicemen still missing from the Korean War.
November 17, 2003 Phonies and Frauds
Real war veterans increasingly uncover truths of 'wannabes'.
November 17, 2003 WW II A Taiwan POW Revisits the Past
John Emmett, who spent three years in Taiwan as a POW in World War II, tells of the hardships he and thousands of others endured in the camps.
November 17, 2003 WW II 3 of 7 Crewmen ID'd in 62 Year-Old Crash
The plan was to bomb a target on the Kurile Islands in Japan and head back to Attu, near the western edge of the Aleutian Islands. But the bomber never returned.
November 16, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast
News and Views :: Mr. Art Bernklau :: Ms. Jeanie Hasenbeck
November 16, 2003 IRAQ - 17 KIA, 5 WIA, 1 Missing in Black Hawk Losses - NME
November 13, 2003 SEA Voice of Vietnam News
He called at the Defence Department's POW/MIA Office and the Norfolk Joint Forces Command in Virginia, and addressed the Defence Institute in Fort McNair.
November 13, 2003 WW II German POWs on American Soil
The shadows of the past are sometimes so well-concealed that those who have lived among them are not aware of their existence until they are exposed in just the right light.
November 13, 2003 IRAQ US Reservists Court-Martialed in Iraqi POW Abuse Case
Three local Army reservists accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners are headed for the Army's most severe category of court-martial, an Army spokesman said. A fourth, Sgt. Shawna Edmondson, has agreed to an other-than-honorable discharge.
November 12, 2003 SEA Cronauer Becomes Supreme Court Attorney
The one-time military disc jockey made famous by the movie ``Good Morning, Vietnam'' has now become a Supreme Court lawyer.
November 12, 2003 IRAQ Hudson Speaks Out on His Experiences
Few will ever know the true ordeal of being a prisoner of war.
November 11, 2003 IRAQ Ex-POW Tells of Torment
Ron Young Jr. had three weeks to fear the unknown as a prisoner of war in Iraq.
November 11, 2003 Arad's Family Calls for Charges
The family of POW Ron Arad has turned to the attorney general calling for criminal charges to be filed against Mustafa Dirani. The Arads explain that Dirani beat, tortured, and abused Ron, and then sold him to Iran, and should be held accountable for his actions.
November 11, 2003 SEA The Simple Metal Bracelet
Steve Blum of Norfolk bought a POW/MIA bracelet carrying the name of Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael L. Roberts. He vowed to wear the bracelet until the man came home. Blum learned this summer that Robertsı remains had been found and identified in Laos.
November 11, 2003 SEA Rumsfeld and Pham Van Tra Meet
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld met with Vietnamese Defense Minister Pham Van Tra today in Washington.
November 11, 2003 Veteran's Day
WHEREAS the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed.
November 10, 2003 SEA Australia Refuses DNA to US for Remains ID at CILHI
AUSTRALIA is refusing access to vital DNA evidence that could identify the remains of Australian soldiers. The Government has rejected a US Army request for DNA samples from descendants to identify up to six soldiers killed in Vietnam and three airmen from World War II.
November 10, 2003 SEA Better Relationships Makes Better Searches
An improved relationship between the U.S. and Vietnamese militaries has led to greater cooperation in the search for U.S. servicemen lost during the Vietnam War, according to the top U.S. military commander here.
November 10, 2003 IRAQ Hernandez Gets Hitched
Former POW Spc. Edgar Hernandez of Fort Bliss married Edleen Aguilera in a ceremony Saturday at Templo Fortaleza in Clint. The couple were reunited about a month after Hernandez's capture March 23 in southern Iraq.
November 10, 2003 IRAQ Lynch Slams Rescue Film
The woman soldier rescued during the Iraq war turned on the top brass who made her into a media event, saying she had been misrepresented.
November 09, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast
News and Views :: Mr. Brian Rooney :: Mr. Kirt Love and Ms. Venus Hammack
November 07, 2003 IRAQ Lynch Plans Wedding
Former POW Jessica Lynch is shopping for a gown for a June wedding in Colorado.
November 07, 2003 Honoring Those Who Sacrificed
November 07, 2003 SEA A Family's Final Farewell
Half a world and 32 years distant from where their son's helicopter went down, Jim and Jane Black of Port Orford, finally said farewell Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery. Paul Vernon Black and three others were on an aerial reconnaissance mission over Cambodia when the chopper was shot down March 1, 1971.
November 07, 2003 SEA MIA Buried at Arlington
More than three decades after Army Warrant Officer Paul Black's helicopter was shot down by the Viet Cong, his remains were buried with those of three wartime comrades Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery.
November 06, 2003 WW II For Us, He Will Always Be Young
Hour after hour, Boris Georgeff and his fellow U.S. Navy Air Corps crew searched the freezing waters of the north Pacific for a sign of their seven buddies whose plane had disappeared over Japanese territory.
November 02, 2003 WW II Back to Burma... the Search for Lost Planes and Friends
An Oxford man joins an expedition to the mountains where he and other Americans flew supplies to Chinese in World War II.
November 01, 2003 SEA US Warship to Make Port Call to Vietnam
Nearly 30 years after the Vietnam War ended with a humiliating exit by the United States, a US warship is expected to dock in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, in mid-November.
POW-MIA Issue Update December 2003