February 2003

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

February 28, 2003 SEA - Recovery Efforts Continue
The Joint Task Force-Full Accounting Detachment Two, based in Hanoi, Vietnam, coordinates and executes the search and recovery efforts for the Missing in Action in Southeast Asia.

February 28, 2003 So That No One Gets Left Behind
Outside Richard Cyr's home on Gill Street, below the America flag on a flagpole in the front yard, flies the familiar black POW/MIA flag. It's a reminder that the job of bringing home those who died defending their country in Vietnam is not finished. The U.S. government makes a promise to every man and woman who serves in the military: No one gets left behind.

February 28, 2003 WW II - POW Camp Life
Life in a golden cage was one of the ways that the speaker at Sele Afternoon's meeting described life as a prisoner of war at the Featherstone camp.

February 28, 2003 SWA - Special Report
As U.S. troops prepare for the possibility of facing attack with chemical or biological weapons in Iraq, the military is grappling with the delicate question of how to handle the contaminated remains of war dead.

February 27, 2003 SEA - Requiem Viewing Dates
An exhibit of photographs taken by journalists who died while covering the decades-long conflict in Vietnam and Indochina will be on display at the Institute of Texan Cultures from March 11 through May 25.

February 27, 2003 SWA - 80 Year-Old Ex-POW Called-Up for Iraq
An 80-year-old Nottinghamshire man has been called up to fight in Iraq.

February 27, 2003 It Isn't Easy
Finding remains isnıt easy, according to Joint Task Force ‹ Full Accounting members who rotate in and out of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia 10 times a year.

February 26, 2003 WW II - The Great Escape
On the night of March 24, 1944, 76 Allied RAF officers escaped from the German prisoner of war camp Stalag-Luft III on the snowbound German-Polish border. Seventy-three were recaptured, 50 of whom were executed on the direct orders of German chancellor Adolf Hitler. Among them were four South Africans: Squadron Leader Roger Bushell of the RAF and Flight-Lieutenants Johannes Gouws, Clement McGarr and Rupert Stevens of the SAAF.

February 25, 2003 SEA - Families to Travel to Vietnam
SDIT's organizes trips for family members, providing them with the opportunity to visit the battlefields and learn about the country where their fathers fought. It also provides an opportunity to meet the people their fathers fought for -- and against. The organization acknowledges it is not a trip for everyone.

February 25, 2003 WW II - Battlefiled War Souveniers To Be Returned
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has received an increasing number of inquiries from the families of U.S. World War II veterans concerning the personal belongings of Japanese soldiers taken from battlefields, officials said Monday.

February 25, 2003 One of the Most Difficult Jobs in the World
About 250 times a year, one Navy office in Millington delivers news so bad that people have run from it. The Casualty Assistance Office delivers both the terrible news to the families of Navy men and women killed or seriously hurt and comforting news about the benefits that follow.

February 25, 2003 Colombia - Rebels Hold Americans as "POWs"
Colombian rebels declared Monday that three captured Americans were "prisoners of war" and will be freed only as part of a broad prisoner exchange with Colombian government.

February 24, 2003 PGW - Former POWs Sue Iraq For US$900 Million
In February 1991, Air Force Capt. Richard Dale Storr's bomber was shot down over Kuwait and he was taken to Baghdad, where he was held prisoner for 33 days.

February 24, 2003 SEA - NLF Update Line
Family Update February 23, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast
News and Views :: Bob Ball :: Mike Benge

February 22, 2003 NAF Bits 'N' Pieces
Summary of News

February 22, 2003 Colombia - Missing Americans in the Jungles of Colombia
U.S. experts are helping the Colombian armed forces search for three Americans captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, embassy officials said today.

February 21, 2003 WW II - A Secret POW War
While the Battle of Iwo Jima raged 58 years ago, Karl King was fighting a secret war of his own. His weapon was sabotage. As a Japanese prisoner of war 760 miles away, he set fire to a warehouse and helped build Japanese ships that would leak.

February 20, 2003 Another Family, Another War
Yvonne Visaka Dharmadasa keeps chocolates in the fridge in case her son, a second lieutenant in the Sri Lankan army who has been missing since rebels attacked his camp in 1998, walks through the door.

February 20, 2003 WW II - Recognition After 61 Years
More than 60 years after enduring a grueling death march at the hands of the Japanese, Air Force Staff Sgt. David Biediger is finally getting his due recognition.

February 20, 2003 WW II - Fran Agnes, WW II POW Passes
Fran Agnes refused to hang wind chimes. To him, they sounded like the hollow canteens prisoners held as they waited for water at the single spigot in a World War II prisoner-of-war camp.

February 19, 2003 SEA- Recovery In Laos
In the months following the June 9, 1968, helicopter crash in the jungles of Laos, Carol Rittichier held onto hope her husband was still alive.

February 19, 2003 PGW - Haunted by Iraq Memories
Marine Maj. Craig Berryman can't shake the memory of his 37 days as an Iraqi prisoner of war.

February 19, 2003 The Forgotten Vets
Godofredo "Fred" Gomez made history last week. But it wasn't the first time the 80-year-old war veteran participated in a historic event.

February 19, 2003 SEA - Repatriation Ceremony
Remains believed to be associated with three cases of unaccounted-for American servicemen in Laos and one in Cambodia will arrive home to American soil Friday, Feb. 21. A joint honor guard will commemorate their arrival in a ceremony 9 a.m., Hickam Air Force Base outside the 15th Air Base Wing base operations building.

February 19, 2003 SWA - Americans Prepare for Prisoners
US military police officers marched the "prisoners" in front of a mock detention centre, shouting at them in English and Arabic, ordering them to their knees to be searched before they get food, water and a place to sleep.

February 18, 2003 Civil War - The Forgotten Cemetery
Members of the Col. Zenas A. Bliss Sons of Union Veterans Camp 12 say theyıre on a mission to restore some dignity and glory to the old St. James Cemetery off Logee Street, a neglected cemetery where the stateıs first Civil War veteran and 13 others are buried.

February 18, 2003 PGW - Another Round For POW Pilot?
Dale Storr spent 33 days as a prisoner of war in Iraq after his A-10 Thunderbolt jet fighter was shot down over southern Kuwait during the early days of the Persian Gulf War.

February 18, 2003 SEA - 51 US Vietnam POWs May Be Identified In Russian Archives
A U.S.-Russian panel on prisoners of war has found information in Russia's military archives that could help account for 51 American pilots missing from Vietnam, a lawmaker said yesterday.

February 17, 2003 SEA - Ia Drang Valley Vet to Speak
Former U.S. Army combat pilot Joseph Salomone will speak on the battle of Ia Drang Valley, scene of some of the fiercest fighting in the Vietnam War, on Thursday, Feb. 27, at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

February 16, 2003 WW II - Angel of Bataan
Dorothea Daley Engel was one of the last people to be evacuated from the Philippines before it fell to the Japanese in World War II.

February 15, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast Schedule
News and Views :: Larry Stark

February 15, 2003 PGW - USS Harry S. Truman Crew Remembers Speicher
As America heads towards war, the pilots on board the USS Harry S. Truman are getting ready - practicing air to air combat and bombing runs. But as they get ready to face a familiar enemy, they realize one of their own could still be alive -- held as a prisoner of war in Iraq.

February 15, 2003 SEA - Laotian Remains Return
The return of the remains of American servicemen killed in Vietnam reminded retired Air Force Maj. Steve Long of his own arrival in Hawaii after years as a prisoner of war.

February 15, 2003 Americans Captured and Executed
U.S. government plane carrying four Americans and a Colombian crashed in southern Colombia, apparently killing two of those aboard, and officials feared the survivors were captured by leftist rebels.

February 14, 2003 SEA - Laos Crash Site Repatriations
Thirty years ago, some 600 POWs finally came home, and Hawaii was the first place they came for Operation Homecoming

February 14, 2003 Remains Handling Policy Stays In Force
The current method of handling the remains of U.S. service members will remain in place, DoD officials said today.

February 14, 2003 Man Loses Bid to Get POW-MIA Sign Variance
A township man has failed in his effort to get a zoning variance that would allow him to keep in his front yard a 32-square-foot banner paying tribute to prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action.

February 14, 2003 WW II - Not Ready For his Last Mile
In grateful memory of First Lieutenant Louis S. Zamperini, A.S. No. 0-663341, who died in the service of his country in the Central Pacific Area, May 28, 1944. He stands in the unbroken line of patriots who have dared to die that freedom might live, and grow, and increase its blessings. Freedom lives, and through it, he lives ‹ in a way that humbles the undertakings of most men.

February 14, 2003 SEA - The Valentine's Day Gift
After their regimental commander was taken prisoner, Newton and the others spent three days in the line with no food or water before a message was dropped from the air reading "you are cut off, travel west to the best of your ability."

February 14, 2003 SEA - Vigil May Soon Be Over
His family and the Coast Guard haven't forgotten him. And neither have strangers from O'ahu to Florida who have kept Rittichier's name alive through the MIA bracelets they've worn for years. Frank Dekle of O'ahu, who has worn an MIA bracelet for 13 years, matched the name on his remembrance band with the news about remains to be repatriated today.

February 14, 2003 SEA - Ex-POW Leads Entitlement Charge
George "Bud" Day's fight to make the federal government keep its promise of free health care to aging military retirees has taken more than a year longer than the 5 1/2 years he spent as a prisoner of war, and it's still not over.

February 14, 2003 KW - CW - Chess Saved Sanity of Korean War POW
Norman Renouf of Windsor Locks said he never would have survived the two years he languished in a North Korean prisoner of war camp if it hadn't been for a bloodless war game called chess.

February 13, 2003 SEA - House Resolution Honoring SEA POWs
The House of Representatives passed a resolution February 12 honoring the sacrifices of American soldiers in the Vietnam war and called for a full accounting of the missing in action from that conflict.

February 13, 2003 SWA - DoD Decides Against Cremation
After a lengthy policy review, the Pentagon has decided against authorizing cremation as a means of disposing of the remains of U.S. troops if they die in a chemical or biological attack.

February 13, 2003 Shuttle - Remains Identified
Remains from all seven astronauts onboard the doomed shuttle Columbia have been positively identified, NASA said Thursday.

February 13, 2003 SEA - Waiting and Hoping
Sgt. James D. LockerFebruary 13, 2003 - Remains recovered from a Southeast Asia military helicopter crash site, undergoing forensic testing at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, could bring closure to the families of a Sidney pararescueman Sgt. James D. Locker and three other crew members.

February 13, 2003 WW II - German POW Speaks
Losch spoke about the two years he spent as a prisoner of war during the American Legion Post 499 Heart to Heart luncheon Thursday. The luncheon part of a national salute to disabled veterans.

February 12, 2003 SEA - Repatriation Ceremony
Remains believed to be associated with two cases of unaccounted-for American servicemen in Southeast Asia will arrive home to American soil Friday, Feb. 14. A joint honor guard will commemorate their arrival in a ceremony at 9 a.m. at Hickam Air Force Base outside the 15th Air Base Wing base operations building. Numerous former Vietnam prisoners-of-war are scheduled to attend the ceremony and activities marking the 30-year anniversary of Operation Homecoming.

February 12, 2003 SEA - POWs to Honor Returning Remains
The remains of American servicemen who were missing in Laos for more than three decades are returning home this week and will be honored by their brothers-in-arms. Former POWs from the same conflict, who are gathered to celebrate their first steps on American soil 30 years ago this week, will pause Friday to honor the remains as they touch down on U.S. soil - as well as thousands still missing in action.

February 12, 2003 SEA - Finally Free
Two words. A snippet of a sentence, a phrase that lifted them higher than the lumbering Air Force C-141 could ever soar. "Feet wet!" came the call. And in plane after plane, shouts of joy erupted as each "Hanoi Taxi" crossed the coastline of Vietnam.

February 12, 2003 SEA - A Re-Birthday
here's a photo of Robert Purcell taken Feb. 12, 1973, in Hanoi, his gaze focused on something unseen, his face completely emotionless. No one who looked at the photo now would know that Purcell and the other men standing two abreast are staring at a C-141 airplane that would end years of their captivity in North Vietnam.

February 12, 2003 SEA - POWs Mark Hawai'i Arrival
On Feb. 12, 1973, the first American POWs left Vietnam as part of "Operation Homecoming." Two days later, after a stop in the Philippines, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Edward A. Davis bent down and touched the ground at Hickam Air Force Base on his first return to U.S. soil.

February 12, 2003 SEA - 30 Years of Freedom
As a new generation of soldiers prepares for a possible war with Iraq, Texas Democratic Rep. Sam Johnson is marking the day his seven years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam ended 30 years ago.

February 11, 2003 SEA - Search Dogs to Work Vietnam Recovery Missions
A Hawaii Army team is heading to Vietnam next week. They'll be searching for missing American soldiers with the help of two very special and highly trained dogs. Max and Pranzer are German Shepards that are trained to track missing people, usually dead people. Next Monday, these dogs will be going on a very special mission.

February 11, 2003 WW II - Wisconsin's 38 POW Camps
The U.S. government housed about 18,000 German prisoners of war in 38 camps across the state during World War II, a fact that has been largely overlooked because a fire destroyed many of the archival records from the period and because "Uncle Sam didn't want us to know."

February 11, 2003 KW - CW - Korean War POW Sainthood Explored
The task force will compile a comprehensive report on the Rev. Emil Kapaun of Pilsen, who is revered by his fellow soldiers for the courage and compassion he displayed before his death in 1951 in a North Korean prisoner of war camp.

February 11, 2003 International Committee of the Red Cross
The United States is pleased to announce a new 2003 contribution of $19.8 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross. This initial contribution is in response to International Committee of the Red Cross 2003 emergency appeals for field operations.

February 10, 2003 Captive Airman's Letter Lost in Crash
Among the items lost in the space shuttle Columbia disaster: a letter from an Israeli air force navigator captured in Lebanon in 1986. It was carried into space by Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon to bring public attention to the case of Ron Arad, who was captured in 1986 after his plane went down over southern Lebanon.

February 10, 2003 NAF: Bits 'N' Pieces
Summary of News

February 10, 2003 PGW - Kuwaitis Remember Gulf War POWs
It's been more than 12 years, and the families of 600 Kuwaitis are still waiting to hear what happened to their loved ones.

February 09, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast
News and Views :: Diane Van Renselaar and Jeanie Hasenback :: Ben Torrey

February 09, 2003 SEA - Mud, Sweat and Tears
To the Americans, the task is deadly serious -- a solemn duty owed to those who laid down their lives for their country. At the bottom of the hole, the diggers believe, are the remains of a U.S. "Huey" helicopter pilot shot down 33 years ago during the Vietnam War. They have come to take him home.

February 08, 2003 WW II - Brothers Reunited in POW Camp
He then survived appalling conditions during the subsequent march back across Europe to Germany as the Russians advanced. He suffered hunger, thirst and exhaustion as he tramped hundreds of miles to eventual freedom in 1944.

February 08, 2003 WW II - Slave Laborers Cannot Sue Japanese Firms
Mitsubishi Materials Corp., Japan's largest nonferrous metal smelter, and other Japanese companies can't be sued in California by people who say they were forced to work as slave laborers during World War II, a state appeals court said.

February 08, 2003 SWA - Gulf War POW Flies in Iraq
Every morning, Lt. Col. Russell Sanborn wakes to an alarm that plays a recording of his five children singing ``Good morning, Daddy.'' All five were born after his release from an Iraqi prison camp 12 years ago. Most of them know that Daddy is going back to the place where the bad guys shot him down.

February 07, 2003 SWA - Battlefield Cremation Considered
The Pentagon is considering cremating remains of troops who may die in a chemical or biological attack in a possible war with Iraq, officials said Thursday.

February 06, 2003 DoD's 9th Annual Prayer Breakfast
Chief Master Sgt. David L. Hamel delighted the audience with his rendition of the "Missing Person Table" ceremony during DoD's 9th annual POW/MIA Prayer Breakfast here today.

February 06, 2003 Orson Swindle Keynote Speaker
Orson G. Swindle III, who spent six years and four months as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, told the audience at DoD's 9th annual POW/MIA Prayer Breakfast about the horrors of prison camp and that the nation "must get it right" during such troubled times.

February 05, 2003 Shuttle - ID Process... Days, Weeks, Months
Flag-draped cases containing the remains of at least some of space shuttle Columbia's astronauts arrived Wednesday at Dover Air Force Base, where experts will work to identify them.

February 04, 2003 KW - CW - Body of Brother Belongs At Home
Kay McMahan and her husband, park ranger Bruce McMahan, are hopeful that the remains of her brother, Orville K. Spicer, will be located eventually. Spicer was 18 when he died in 1950 in North Korea.

February 04, 2003 New Book: A Missing Plane
A Missing Plane is an essential work of nonfiction that tells the story of B-24 Liberator Serial Number 42-41081, and how its crew and passengers went missing in Papua New Guinea during WWII and the circumstances that lead to its discovery, identification and recovery from Mount Thumb in Papua New Guinea in 1982. The book is divided into three parts: recovery, identification and pilot.

February 03, 2003 SEA - NLF Update Line
Family Update

February 03, 2003 WW II - German POWs Worked County Farms
Billy King sits on a stone gate at Johnson's Local Park on Washington Grove Lane. The gate, built by German prisoners of war, marks the place where a camp for 200 prisoners was located during World War II. The letters are typed or written in careful script.

February 02, 2003 KW - CW - 'Forgotten War' Veterans Remember
Frank Bolen was a prisoner of war for 10 months during World War II. Ron Parks spent five years as a POW in Korea.

February 02, 2003 WW II - The German Guard
For nearly six months in 1944 and 1945, Flores, then a 27-year-old prisoner of war, squirreled away scraps of paper in his clothing, worried that his Nazi captors would take them away.

February 01, 2003 "Columbia Is Lost"
The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth; yet we can pray that all are safely home. May God bless the grieving families, and may God continue to bless America.

February 01, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast
News and Views :: Larry J. O'Daniel :: Gary Chenett

POW-MIA Issue Update March 2003