April 2003

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

April 30, 2003 Cage Walk Continues on to DC
Fred "Gunner" Bletz spends six to eight hours a day in a bamboo tiger cage with his ankles shackled to the floor. Numerous flags fly from the cage and an old leather vest hangs from one corner of the quarters that are so small, Bletz can't stand to stretch his body. Instead, he remains huddled in a corner.

April 30, 2003 IRAQ - Captured Aziz Claims Speicher Perished in Wreck
Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has told U.S. interrogators that missing U.S. pilot Capt. Michael Scott Speicher was killed when his F-18 was shot down by anti-aircraft fire during the opening night of the 1991 Gulf War. U.S. military officials said last night that Aziz, the highest-profile Iraqi regime figure in American custody, denied persistent reports over the past decade that Speicher survived the crash and was imprisoned in Iraq.

April 30, 2003 IRAQ - Long-Term POWs and Displaced Begin to Reconnect
The International Committee of the Red Cross is helping to re-establish contact between Iraqi citizens dislocated by war.

April 29, 2003 Forgotten Eagles Freedom Ride
Forgotten Eagles POW-MIA of Michigan with over 400 members accross Michigan will be holding the Michigan State Freedom Ride in August of 2003.

April 29, 2003 WW II - Unackowledged Heroes
Bell enlisted on January 27, as Japanese troops were sweeping down the Malay Peninsula to Singapore, pushing 19,000 raw troops of the Australian 8th Division (among others) ahead of them. Bell was a soldier only three weeks before he became a prisoner of war for 13 months.

April 29, 2003 SEA - Work Will Continue to Find Pilot
Crews will continue to search the jungle for the remains of a pilot from Waterford whose helicopter was shot down in Vietnam 31 years ago, U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons said Monday. Simmons said he is confident the remains of Army Capt. Arnold Holm will be found, but said the search could take days or years.

April 29, 2003 SEA - Simmons Finds New MIA Evidence
Citing new promise for long-sought closure, U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons Monday recapped his visit to Vietnam, where he oversaw efforts to recover the remains of a Waterford native who is missing in action.

April 29, 2003 CIVIL WAR - The Sultana Tragedy
All they wanted to do was go home. The weary soldiers had survived the ravages of war and the horrors of prison camp, and looked forward to nothing more than reuniting with loved ones. But, sadly and terribly, most didn't make it home alive.

April 29, 2003 KW - CW - NK-US Tensions Stall POW-MIA Recovery
Gail Embery held the tattered Western Union telegram that informed her family that Army Sgt. Coleman Edwards had been captured in Korea. "I've been waiting my whole life to bring my father home," she said Saturday.

April 28, 2003 SEA - Carroll Beeler Dies in Aircraft Crash
A former Vietnam War POW was killed Saturday while pushing a groundbreaking new corporate jet to its limits, according to a friend and co-worker. Carroll Beeler, 59, a Boerne resident and the chief test pilot for San Antonio-based Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corp., died Saturday after an experimental company plane he was flying alone crashed in a rugged area about 50 miles north of Del Rio in Val Verde County.

April 28, 2003 IRAQ - Last Confirmed MIA Remains Identified
The Department of Defense announced today that the following soldiers were killed in Iraq on April 25, 2003...

April 27, 2003 Preventing POW Identity Theft
JAG attorney wants to prevent POW identity theft. Captured servicemembers for decades have been giving the enemy their name, rank and serial number. A judge advocate says the practice should be abolished because a captor can now use a prisoner's serial number - that is, his Social Security number - against him.

April 26, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast Schedule
News and Views :: Amy Waters Yarsinske :: TBA

April 26, 2003 POW-MIA Cage Walk
Troops captured by the enemy during the Vietnam War were transported, and often had to stay, in tiger cages. To raise awareness of those conditions and in the hopes of increasing the return of prisoners of war and those missing in action a POW/MIA Cage Walk is taking place nationally.

April 26, 2003 NAF Bits 'N' Pieces
Summary of News

April 26, 2003 SEA - Items in Jungle Give Searchers Hope
Items in jungle give search team hope - Congressman Rob Simmons and others may link material they discovered to missing men.

April 25, 2003 KW - CW - Former POWs Remember Grueling Experiences
As the Korean peninsula teeters precariously ahead of still uncertain US-China-North Korea talks this week, a 50-year anniversary is reminding veterans on both sides of the Pacific about the human cost of armed conflict. In late April 1953, the two sides in the Korean War, who had been killing each other for nearly three years, began exchanging sick and wounded prisoners in what was nicknamed operation "Little Switch".

April 25, 2003 IRAQ-PGW - "Only Iraqi's Know Fate of Pilot"
Are these the initials of Michael Scott Speicher? Some say yes, some simply don't know.

April 25, 2003 IRAQ-PGW - Progress Reported in Search for Speicher
CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency officials said they are making progress in finding a missing Navy pilot and have dismissed months of faulty intelligence reports. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded this week that they were fed false information on Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, who has been missing since the 1991 Persian Gulf war, as the result of the searches of three sites in Iraq, one intelligence official said yesterday.

April 25, 2003 IRAQ - Women POWs Are Instant Celebrities
Former prisoner of war Spc. Shoshana Johnson has been offered a scholarship to a prestigious culinary school, her own bakery, and is being courted by Oprah Winfrey and NBC's Stone Phillips. The other rescued woman, Pfc. Jessica Lynch, was on the cover of People and Newsweek and had to ask well-wishers to stop sending gifts to her crowded hospital room.

April 24, 2003 IRAQ-PGW - Speicher - Initials Reportedly Found Scratched onto Baghdad Prison Wall
A U.S. military search team has found Navy pilot Scott Speicher's initials -- MSS -- scratched into the wall of a cell in a Baghdad prison, NBC News has reported, citing unidentified U.S. officials. Speicher has been variously listed as the first casualty of the Gulf War or missing in action since being shot down over Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. His fate has been the subject of much speculation as well as Congressional interest.

April 24, 2003 IRAQ-PGW - Initials of Pilot Found in Jail
American investigators in Iraq have found what may be a clue to the only American missing from the first Gulf War: the initials of Navy pilot Michael Scott Speicher, etched into a prison wall in Baghdad.

April 24, 2003 WW II - The Many Escapes of Frank Gatland
Manurewa resident Frank Gatland was too busy trying to escape prison to get bored. Mr Gatland, who was taken prisoner by the Germans in World War II, made five escape attempts - all of them unsuccessful.

April 24, 2003 SEA - A Journey for Answers
Simmons, a teacher at the Regional Multicultural Magnet School in Waterford, is accompanying her husband, U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, on a six-day visit to Vietnam. The main reason for the visit is related to the search for Waterford native Capt. Arnold Holm, shot down over Vietnam in 1972. Holm, and his two crewmen, Pfc. Wayne Bibbs and Spec. Robin Yeakley, have been listed as missing in action since.

April 24, 2003 IRAQ - Unknown War Iranian War Dead Buried
A couple of weeks ago coalition forces found a storage facility (among other things) stacked with warehoused human remains. Although initially unclear exactly who the numerous remains represented, the Iranian government issued a statement within hours that claimed the remains as unrepatriated war dead from the Iraq-Iran war period. Presumably the following refers to either the warehoused unknowns or mass graves discovered and opened.

April 24, 2003 SOMALIA -In the Company of Heroes: Mike Durant
What ever happened to the guy who was shot down and held captive by "hostile forces" in the movie Blackhawk Down? He survived and lived to tell his story in a soon-to-be released book, titled, In the Company of Heroes, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons. Chief Warrant Officer 4 (Retired) Durant, in an interview with Steven Hartov recounts the "details" of his incredible story in a chilling and forthcoming account of strength and fortitude.

April 24, 2003 IRAQ - Missing Airman Declared Dead
No mention of whether this was a remains identification or a PFOD. Watkins and Das were never referred to by name by DoD until they were declared dead. Although the names were known, and many reports named them, no official mention of them was made other than as two F-15E fliers were unaccounted-for.

April 23, 2003 Permanent National POW-MIA Recognition Day Petition
Although there is a National POW-MIA Recognition Day, which is observed on the third Friday of every September, it is not a permanent or fixed observance. The President of the United States must authorize its observance every single year.

April 23, 2003 KW - CW - Cold Warrior Memorialized, Still Missing
Last year China allowed the US to excavate a crash site in search of two missing Cold War heroes who disappeared 51 years ago. For all the paper and ink associated with the historic, first-ever on China mainland search, we now find that no remains were found and Schwartz and Snoddy remain unaccounted-for. Background story links appear at end.

April 23, 2003 KW - CW - POWs Remember
In late April 1953, the two sides in the Korean War, who had been killing each other for nearly three years, began exchanging sick and wounded prisoners in what was nicknamed operation "Little Switch".

April 23, 2003 IRAQ - Harrowing Evasion of UK Troops Revealed
In a near repeat of the ill-fated Bravo Two Zero mission the pair were among 16 men dropped into the desert - and into the middle of an Iraqi stronghold. For the next three days the two - who became separated from their colleagues after coming under heavy fire - used all their skills to evade Iraqi death squads hot on their heels before a dramatic rescue. Their captured jeep was shown on Iraqi TV, yet all the time the MoD denied anyone was missing.

April 23, 2003 Rolling Thunder Keeps Rolling On
South Dakota now has an official voice in an effort to urge the U.S. government to continue searching for military personnel missing in action or taken as prisoners of war. Rolling Thunder's national office granted a charter this month to Rolling Thunder Chapter 1 of South Dakota.

April 23, 2003 Joint Personnel Recovery Agency
It's going to take more than returning Pfc. Jessica Lynch to the United States for her to get back to a normal life. Much the same could be said about the seven prisoners of war - her five unit comrades and two pilots - rescued April 13.

April 23, 2003 PGW - Speicher Documentary, Friends & Firemen
The documentary tells the story of Jacksonville resident Michael Scott Speicher, who was declared dead in 1991 after his plane was shot down on the first night of the Gulf War, but who was re-classified as a Prisoner of War in 2002 after Pentagon officials concluded that he ejected from his F/A-18 strike fighter and was most likely captured alive.

April 23, 2003 SEA - Finding MIAs Depends on VN Keeping Promise
The successes in recovering the remains of American servicemen listed as missing in action from the Vietnam War depends greatly on the cooperation of the Vietnamese government and its willingness to allow the investigations and excavations to take place within the country.

April 23, 2003 IRAQ - Holding Onto Hope for MIA
For the mother of the remaining soldier identified as missing in action from Operation Iraqi Freedom, this is how an evening unfolds in a white stucco duplex on the outskirts of a small town bounded by sugar cane and cotton fields.

April 23, 2003 IRAQ - POW War Crimes Investigated
The fate of Pfc. Lori Piestewa and the other casualties of the 507th Maintenance Unit will be central issues as the U.S. military prepares for war crimes trials in the aftermath of the Iraq war. Piestewa, a Hopi from Tuba City, Ariz., is the first American Indian woman in the history of the U.S. military to have been recorded as killed in combat. She died in still undetailed circumstances on or after March 23 when her maintenance unit took a wrong turn in the early advance north into Iraq and ran into an ambush in the city of an-Nasariyah.

April 23, 2003 HR 850 - POW Special Compensation Bill
To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide special compensation for former prisoners of war, and for other purposes.

April 23, 2003 Certain POWs Not Eligible for Compensation
American service members taken prisoner by a foreign military face an endless list of fears, including the possibility of torture and execution, being used as "guinea pigs" for medical or weapons experiments by enemy forces and the very real threat that they will never see their families or homes ever again.

April 23, 2003 Prisoner of War Benefits Act 2003
To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide improved benefits for veterans who are former prisoners of war.

April 23, 2003 WW I - IRAQ - Commonwelath POW Cemetery Restored by US in Iraq
U.S. Marines of Task Force Tarawa record tombstone names in hopes of restoring the Kut War Cemetery in Kut, Iraq, some 100 miles south of Baghdad. The Kut War Cemetery is the resting place of British and Indian soldiers killed in battle against the Turks during their push toward Baghdad in World War I. Since the first gulf war in 1991, the cemetery has fallen into disrepair with most locals using it as a football field and a dump.

April 23, 2003 Local Legis: Move to Permanently Display POW-MIA Flag
A POW-MIA flag is a symbol of remembrance of brave men and women lost or captured in combat. Now, WTAE's Shiba Russell reports that there is a push to make it a permanent part of the political landscape.

April 22, 2003 SEA - 'Official' Figure Goes Up to 1,902
The most recent (17 MAR 03) PMSEA (Personnel Missing SEA) from DPMO has gone up by 2, making the unaccounted-for figure 1,902.

April 22, 2003 IRAQ - PGW - Search for Speicher Turns Up Empty, So Far
A U.S. military search team in Iraq has checked three sites in the country for signs of a Navy pilot missing from the 1991 Persian Gulf war but has found nothing, defense officials said yesterday.

April 22, 2003 SEA - NLF Update Line
Family News Update

April 22, 2003 KW - CW - 2 Wars, 2 Cases, 2 Outcomes
They saved Pfc. Lynch. She was a POW, and the powers that be received reliable information she was alive and being held against her will by enemy forces, so they did the logical thing and rescued her. It is a remarkable story ­ one filled with hope, determination, heroism and the glory of doing the undeniable right thing.

April 21, 2003 IRAQ - PGW - Michael Scott Speicher, Where Is He?
Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican and chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, says that if Saddam Hussein is alive he may have Navy pilot Capt. Michael Scott Speicher - the Navy pilot shot down on the first night of the 1991 Persian Gulf war - "with him."

April 21, 2003 SEA - Playing the Hand Life Deals
Col. Edward Hubbard spent 61/2 years of his life either being beaten mercilessly by his North Vietnamese captors or sitting in his cell for hours with nothing but his thoughts to keep him alive and focused.

April 20, 2003 Changing the Star from Blue to Gold
They are members of a forgotten group they never wanted to join, an organization unified by loss and tears and memories stronger than time. Now those memories have returned, as the war against Iraq ensures a new wave of women will qualify for membership in the American Gold Star Mothers.

April 20, 2003 IRAQ - PGW - Speicher, Fox News Transcript!
Following is a transcribed excerpt from Fox News Sunday, April 20, 2003.

April 20, 2003 IRAQ - Just Who and How Many are Missing?
An Army spokesman at the Pentagon said Saturday there is still no word on Army Sgt. Edward John Anguiano, who has been missing since March 23.

April 19, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast
News and Views :: Patty Hopper, Director of Task Force Omega :: Bill Cavalieri

April 19, 2003 Keeping the Promise
Holm, a helicopter pilot, was shot down in June 1972. A decorated career military man, he was in his second tour of duty during the Vietnam War. His body and those of his two crewmen have never been recovered. Two previous attempts pinpointing the location of the crash site failed to produce any significant evidence to warrant a more detailed search in the hopes of recovering those remains.

April 19, 2003 IRAQ - 887 Iraqi POWs Released
Coalition forces sorting through thousands of Iraqi war prisoners have released nearly 900 after determining they were civilians who had nothing to do with the fighting. Other prisoners, particularly high-ranking military or government officials in Saddam Hussein's toppled regime, are being questioned as part of the search for former top Iraqi leaders and weapons of mass destruction.

April 19, 2003 IRAQ - PGW - The Last POW
They said goodbye to him nearly 12 years ago, here at Cecil Field, now home to corporate jets and commuter airlines. It was a naval air station back then, Scott Speicher's home base. Hundreds came to the funeral. A funeral without a body. There was the grieving widow, Joanne, who had married him at this same place, 71/2 years before. His fellow pilots. His two small children. His father. His friends.

April 19, 2003 IRAQ - PGW - Kuwait Offers Rewards for POW Info
On the POWs, he said the state (Kuwait) would continue the search for the prisoners, in coordination with the coalition forces and the Iraqi people. Kuwait declared on Wednesday a bounty of one million dollars for authentic information about whereabouts of more than 600 Kuwaiti POWs.

April 19, 2003 IRAQ - US and Iraqi POWs
With 6,000 prisoners of war in American custody in Iraq, including five top officials of the deposed Iraqi government, the United States is only in the earliest phases of thinking about what kinds of legal proceedings they should face if they are believed to have violated international law, U.S. government officials said.

April 18, 2003 Compensation for Saddam's Captives
Stuart Williams is watching the end of the war with Iraq as one of a special group of Americans: He was a victim of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime more than a decade ago, and now he's finally being paid for his nightmare.

April 18, 2003 The POW Oral History Project
And now, with POWs heading home from Iraq, who knows how many more will have stories to add to the permanent record, Miller said.

April 18, 2003 WW II - Silent Hero from WW II Honored
Fresh out of West Point, Polla was shipped to the Philippines. Polla earned the medals first fighting off the Japanese at Bataan and then as a prisoner of war. But because of his prisoner-of-war status, Polla was never awarded the medals until now.

April 18, 2003 SEA - Searching the Jungles
Simmons, who did two tours in Vietnam, one in the Army and one as a CIA operative, will visit the site near Hue where officials believe Capt. Arnold Holmıs helicopter crashed.

April 17, 2003 SEA - Another War, Another MIA
It was April 18, 1973, and though the Vietnam War had just officially ended, secret bombing missions now targeted Cambodia. Capt. Martin, just six months into his Southeast Asia assignment, was flying those missions.

April 17, 2003 PGW - IRAQ - Case Resurfaces for Missing Pilot
They said goodbye to him nearly 12 years ago, here at Cecil Field, now home to corporate jets and commuter airlines. It was a naval air station back then, Scott Speicher's home base. Hundreds went to the funeral. A funeral without a body. There was the grieving widow, Joanne, who had married him at this same place 7 1/2 years before. His fellow pilots. His two small children. His father. His friends.

April 17, 2003 IRAQ - The POW Rescues
A day or so later, the downing of an Apache helicopter with two crew aboard brought the number of known captives with now-public faces and anxious families to eight.

April 16, 2003 KW - CW - The Lost Soldier
On January 5, 1965, Jenkins, then 24 and a sergeant in the United States Army, was in South Korea with the 8th Cavalry. He was leading a four-man patrol in a wooded area just outside the southern boundary of the demilitarised zone that divides the two Koreas, 10 kilometres south of Panmunjom. He heard a noise and left his fellow soldiers to check it out. Jenkins never returned. But the US Army did not believe he had been captured. It was convinced Jenkins had defected to the communist North.

April 16, 2003 IRAQ - Senators Press for Invocation of S. 1339
Persian Gulf War POW/MIA Accountability Act author Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., (R-Wis.) today urged Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to invoke legislation enacted last year and grant refugee status to the Iraqi national who played an instrumental role in the rescue of POW Pfc. Jessica Lynch. News reports have detailed the courageous efforts of "Mohammed" to contact U.S. forces in Iraq with information about where Pfc. Lynch was being held, leading to her rescue.

April 16, 2003 IRAQ - Text Version of S. 1339 for Reference
S. 1339, to amend the Bring Them Home Alive Act of 2000 to provide an asylum program with regard to American Persian Gulf War POW/MIAs. Signed on October 29, 2002. (Public Law 107-258)

April 15, 2003 IRAQ - US-Kuwait Discuss 1991 POW Issue
With the war on Iraq nearing an end, the United States has assured Kuwait that it would follow every possible lead on to trace 600 prisoners of the 1991 war claimed to be held in Baghdad.

April 15, 2003 IRAQ - Rumsfeld - Meyers Transcript
We are very grateful that seven American prisoners of war in Iraq have been recovered. But even as we celebrate, we note that there are still four U.S. service members whose whereabouts are unknown; and a number of coalition POWs that are still missing from 1991, a number of Kuwaitis and one American. We'll continue to work to find them until all have been accounted for.

April 15, 2003 IRAQ - 18 Freed Kuwaiti POWs False Report
Reports issued Monday by Abu Dhabi satellite television, which stated 18 Kuwaitis were among hundreds detained in an underground shelter in Baghdad, were denied by Director of Kuwaiti Kinsfolk Association for Hostages and Detainees (KKAHD) Fayez Al-Enezi.

April 14, 2003 IRAQ - Rumsfeld on Long-Term POWs
We also talked about the -- our shared interest in finding the remaining people that are missing or who are prisoners of war, both from this conflict and also from the conflict in 1991. It is something that the government of Kuwait and the government of the United States share as a deep concern and an abiding interest. And I can -- I assured the minister that the United States is doing everything possible to pursue every conceivable lead. And we are hopeful that people in Iraq who oppose that regime will come forward and provide any information that they may have so that we can, in fact, achieve our goal of returning all of those individuals.

April 14, 2003 IRAQ - Kuwait Pledges Significant Aid, Looks for POWs
Kuwait is providing "significant humanitarian assistance" to Iraq while still hoping to recover its prisoners of war from Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion.

April 13, 2003 IRAQ - DoD News Release
The Department of Defense announced today the changed status of seven soldiers from Prisoner of War to Returned to Military Control. Williams and Young are assigned to 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas. The other soldiers are assigned to 507th Maintenance Company, Fort Bliss, Texas.

April 13, 2003 IRAQ - Bush's Promise
Today is a great day for the families, comrades, loved ones of the seven missing in action who are free. I'm really pleased, for all those who have been praying for their safety, that they are safe. We still have missing in action in Iraq; we will continue to look for them. We pray that they, too, will be safe and free one of these days. But it's just a good way to start off the morning, to have been notified that seven of our fellow Americans are going to be home here pretty soon, in the arms of their loved ones.

April 13, 2003 IRAQ - 7 POWs Returned to US Control
DoD officials identified the seven American prisoners of war found in northern Iraq today as five members of the 507th Maintenance Company and two Apache helicopter pilots.

April 13, 2003 IRAQ - 7 POWs Recovered
Family members have confirmed notification of recovery of 7 POWs in Iraq.

April 13, 2003 IRAQ - Seven Americans Recovered - Rumsfeld
Seven U.S. service members listed as missing or prisoners have been returned to American control, U.S. Central Command chief Army Gen. Tommy Franks said today.

April 13, 2003 IRAQ - DoD News Announcement
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, speaking to reporters outside the NBC studio here today, added that two of the Americans are suffering from gunshot wounds, but all could walk.

April 13, 2003 IRAQ - SEVEN Americans Reported Rescued
CENTCOM - SEVEN Americans are reported to be resued allive.

April 13, 2003 IRAQ - 6 Missing Troops Reported as Rescued
SIX US soldiers believed to have been prisoners of war were rescued alive from Iraqi forces north of Baghdad, a US commander in the Iraqi capital said today. "What is believed to be six American soldiers from the army have been rescued from Iraqi forces after being held as prisoners of war about 60 miles (95km) north of Baghdad," said the commander, who asked not to be named.

April 13, 2003 IRAQ - At Least 6 US Unaccounted-For Troops Found Alive
Six or seven U.S. troops listed as missing in Iraq have been found alive and in good condition, the U.S. commander of the war said Sunday. Gen. Tommy Franks said he had been reluctant to release the information because he was unsure whether the service members were among the five U.S. personnel previously listed as missing or the seven listed as POWs.

April 13, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast Today
News and Views :: Kieran McKibben :: Danny "Greasy" Belcher

April 13, 2003 PGW - US Looks for Speicher
After 12 years of being ignored, Scott Speicher is finally getting some attention from the US. Searches go on throughout Iraq and Baghdad

April 13, 2003 SEA - NLF Update Line
Family News Update

April 12, 2003 IRAQ - ICRC, "We Simply Don't Know" Where US POWs Are
The Red Cross (ICRC) has announced that it is unable to get access to seven American prisoners-of-war in Iraq. While the ICRC has visited a camp of Iraqi prisoners captured by the US-led coalition, there has been no contact whatsoever with the US soldiers officially listed as POWs.

April 12, 2003 IRAQ - Iraqi POWs Find Comfort Onboard The Comfort
Plying the Arabian Sea, she's an oasis of medical care and hope for sick or wounded U.S. and coalition troops, Iraqi civilians ­ and enemy prisoners of war.

April 12, 2003 IRAQ - US-UK To Be Held Responsible for Irani POWs
As late as 2002, both Iran and Iraq laimed the other held POWs from the war. Several hundred long-term POWs and remains were repariated during the late 1990's, but the issue of POWs and MIAs was one of the major stumbling blocks in normalization of relations between the two countries.

April 11, 2003 IRAQ - ICRC Still Seeks Access to US POWs
In a statement, the Swiss-based agency said that it was "deeply concerned" that it had not been allowed to visit coalition prisoners of war (POWs) held by Iraqi forces.

April 11, 2003 IRAQ - The Search for POWs
AS STATUES of Saddam Hussein were toppling in Baghdad and pockets of resistance were crumbling in the countryside, one of the US military's first priorities was to find and free the seven known American prisoners of war. The dramatic and morale-building rescue of Private Jessica Lynch struck a special chord in the public imagination. Soon it will be the turn of the other American POWs to be reunited with their families.

April 11, 2003 IRAQ - Hoax Casualty Callers Can be Charged and Sued
Mystery Callers Falsely Tell Military Families Their Loved Ones Died in Iraq

April 10, 2003 IRAQ - Hoax Casualty Calls Continue
You get a call in the middle of the night. It's the Red Cross, and your son is missing in battle ... And it's a strange, heartless joke. The prank has been pulled often enough that the American Red Cross is putting out a warning that hoaxers are calling families of known service personnel and telling them family members are missing ­ or even dead.

April 10, 2003 IRAQ - US Investigates Possible War Crimes
The treatment and deaths of Pfc. Lori Piestewa, the first American servicewoman to die in Iraq, and other members of the Army's ambushed 507th Maintenance Unit are being investigated as potential war crimes, a Pentagon spokesman says.

April 09, 2003 IRAQ - Enemy POW Numbers Fall Far Below Expected
The number of Iraqi prisoners of war under U.S. military control is smaller than expected, possibly a result of American propaganda urging Iraqi soldiers to put down their arms and go home, a key U.S. military official said yesterday.

April 09, 2003 PGW - Where Is Scott Speicher?
American intelligence officers are preparing to move into Iraq to search for a Navy pilot who may have survived the downing of his fighter jet during the Persian Gulf war 12 years ago, but has never been accounted for, United States officials said today.

April 09, 2003 Andersonville National Historic Site & Museum
The flight suit of Rhonda Cornum, an Army doctor who was captured by the Iraqis during the 1991 Gulf War, stands on display at the National Prisoner of War Museum in Andersonville, Ga., Friday, March 28, 2003. Also in the display are the combat boots she was wearing when captured and a cast for her broken arm made by the Iraqis. Cornum took part in the 1998 opening of the museum, which focuses on the suffering of U.S. POW's in all the nation's wars.

April 09, 2003 IRAQ - Enemy POWs Reportedly Well Cared For
The British, he remarked, had early in the war established a detainment facility at Umm Qasr for the POWs they had captured in Iraq and those secured by U.S. and other coalition troops.

April 09, 2003 IRAQ - 2 F-15E Aviators Missing
Two American airmen have been missing since their F-15E Strike Eagle went down in Iraq April 6, U.S. military officials in Saudi Arabia said. Defense officials in the Pentagon had no further information on whether the airplane was shot down or crashed for other reasons.

April 08, 2003 CILHI is 30
For years, the Central Identification Laboratory has been providing answers to the loved ones and families of service members who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. On our 30th anniversary we are taking this time to honor all the dedicated staff at CILHI who have made those answers possible.

April 08, 2003 White House - National Former Prisoner of War Day
Americas former Prisoners of War are national heroes whose service to our country will never be forgotten. These brave men and women who fought for America and endured cruelties and deprivation as prisoners of war helped to protect our Nation, liberated millions of people from the threats of tyranny and terror, and advanced the cause of freedom worldwide.

April 08, 2003 IRAQ - ICRC Visits 3,700 Iraqi POWs, No US POWs
Regrettably we have not been granted access to the coalition PoWs in Iraqi hands, and that will remain a very important priority of ours to try and obtain that.

April 07, 2003 IRAQ - DOD Briefing
The modern law of war as we know it today actually began when President Lincoln commissioned Professor -- Dr. Francis Lieber to write a code for Union forces during the American Civil War. The Lieber Code, as its known -- it was also U.S. Army General Order No. 100, and it was published in 1863 -- that really formed the foundation for everything we have in our modern law of war today. Professor Lieber didn't make it up. He actually went through history to find the practice of nations, and I think that's a very important point here, to understand that this is the way nations feel that they should conduct military operations.

April 06, 2003 IRAQ - Iraq POW-MIA Bracelets
Please Purchase Bracelets from POW-MIA and Family Support Groups and not commercial businesses. POW-MIA associated groups will reuse the monies for issue awareness and/or donate some proceeds to POW-MIA families. Businesses will just jump on the bandwagon to make a buck off of someone else's misery.

April 06, 2003 Speicher, POW-MIA Sign Must Go Says Township
In America, people have the right and privilege to gather, gaggle and gawk... in the streets, in parks, and pretty much anywhere they desire. In America, people have the right to burn the flag, stop traffic, protest, hold placards and wreak havoc because they are for or against something. However, in Franklin Township, Ohio, which last time I looked was still in America, a vet does not have the right to place a large placard in a memorial setting honoring POWs and MIAs from all wars, on his own priavte, residential property.

April 06, 2003 PGW - PGW POW Lawsuit
Seventeen former prisoners of war have filed a lawsuit to get Iraq pay millions of dollars in damages for the torture they suffered in the first Gulf War.

April 06, 2003 PGW - US Confident Speicher Fate Will Be Known
As endgames of this Gulf war are played out, there are hopes that the advance into the heart of the Iraqi capital will also bring an end to one of the enduring intrigues of the previous conflict - the whereabouts of US airman Michael Scott Speicher.

April 06, 2003 SEA - Former VN POW an Inspirational Speaker
Edward L. Hubbard knows better than most the plight of American POWs in Iraq. The retired Air Force colonel spent 6 1/2 years -- 2,420 days -- as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam after his plane was shot down.

April 06, 2003 PGW - Kuwaiti POWs, the 12 Year Wait for Freedom from Iraq
There are 605 Kuwaitis who never returned home and were never accounted for, after being taken prisoner by Iraq during its invasion of Kuwait. The question of their fate in a desert nation smaller than New Jersey is perhaps even more deeply felt here than the issue of Vietnam War POWs and MIAs has been in the United States.

April 06, 2003 KW - CW - China May Have Answers... the Dumas Case
The Korean War ended 50 years ago. But for Robert Dumas, a veteran of that war, the end of the war was only the beginning. Dumas has devoted the past half century to trying to locate his brother, Roger, who was captured by the North Koreans. Roger Dumas is among 8,100 American servicemen listed as missing in action from that war.

April 06, 2003 KW - CW - Korean War POWs Remember
Few people can imagine the anxiety and suffering American prisoners of war in Iraq may be feeling after being captured by the enemy. There are, however, some who can. They are POWs from previous American wars. While their conditions may have been vastly different, they are in a unique position to be able to understand the physical and psychological hardships of being captured behind enemy lines. Two Phoenixville-area veterans sat down recently to describe their experience as POWs.

April 06, 2003 NAF Bits 'N' Pieces
Summary of News

April 05, 2003 POW-MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast Schedule
News and Views :: Jack Cashill :: Diane Carlson Evans

April 05, 2003 SEA - Vietnam MIA Honored
It was here some 40 years ago that he and his friend and classmate Arnold Holm did battle on the gridiron as co-captains of the Waterford High School Lancers football team. But his thoughts Friday were of another field of battle half a world away. On June 11, 1972, Army Capt. Arnold Holm was shot down over Vietnam. His body and that of his crew never were recovered.

April 04, 2003 IRAQ - ALERT - Phony Casualty Calls Being Made to Families
Today we are aware of a number of PHONY CASUALTY PHONE CALLS being made to families with loved ones serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The families are being told their loved one is either Missing, a POW, or was Killed in Action.

April 04, 2003 SEA - NLF Update
Family News Update

April 04, 2003 IRAQ - Rescue is First Since WW II
The difficulty of the daring rescue Tuesday of Fort Bliss Pfc. Jessica Lynch is a good example of why it was the first successful such rescue of an American POW since World War II, a spokesman for the Defense Department's POW-MIA office said Wednesday.

April 04, 2003 SEA - DPMO Give Briefing at High School
Commenting on Tuesday's daring rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, a Central Command spokesman in Qatar said, "America doesn't leave its heroes behind." It is a promise made to every American that has ever served in the military in wartime. It is a promise kept -- no matter how long it takes to fulfill.

April 03, 2003 IRAQ - DoD on Lynch Rescue
Coalition special operations forces rescued Army Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch from the hands of her Iraqi captors during a mission into the town of Nasiriyah, U.S. Central Command officials said today. Lynch was held at the Saddam Hospital ­ a facility used by the regime as a military post ­ said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, Central Command's deputy chief of operations, during a press conference in Qatar.

April 03, 2003 PGW - Family Remembers It Well
Mary Ann Sweet had the same feelings Tuesday night as she did when her son, Robert, was released from Iraqi captivity 12 years ago. "I'm so excited. I can't believe it. This is wonderful," Mrs. Sweet said from her Wood County home. Mary Ann and Arthur Sweet experienced the anguish when their son Maj. Robert Sweet was a POW/MIA during the Gulf War. The Air Force pilot was shot down on Feb. 15, 1991 and held captive for 19 days by the same regime that held Jessica Lynch. Robert Sweet now is stationed at the command center in Qatar, Kuwait.

April 03, 2003 IRAQ - Local Activist Makes Appeal for Humane POW Treatment
The Rev. Al Sharpton met with the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday to make what he called a moral appeal to the Iraqi government that no harm come to American prisoners of war.

April 03, 2003 PGW - Rescue Gives Hope to Speicher Family
This week's rescue of American POW Jessica Lynch has renewed hope of those looking for others. Navy Pilot Scott Speicher was declared killed in action after his jet was shot down over Iraq during the first Gulf War.

April 03, 2003 PGW - Hostage Awarded US $1.75 Million Compensation
A former oil worker who went partially blind and suffered nerve damage while being held hostage in Iraq in 1990 has received $1.75 million in damages from the Iraqi government.

April 01, 2003 IRAQ - DoD News Release - POW Rescue
The Department of Defense announced today that Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch, 19, of Palestine, W.Va., was recovered and returned to U.S. control as the result of a successful rescue mission.

April 01, 2003 IRAQ - American POW Rescued from Iraqis - Defense
An American POW taken during fighting around Nasiriyah has been rescued, Central Command officials announced tonight. Pfc. Jessica Lynch, 19, of the 507th Maintenance Battalion based at Fort Bliss, Texas, was rescued during an operation near the Iraqi city, Army officials said.

April 01, 2003 IRAQ - POW PFC Jessica Lynch Rescued in Iraq
U.S. Central Command early Wednesday confirmed the rescue of a U.S. Army prisoner of war held captive in Iraq.

April 01, 2003 IRAQ - Newsday Journalists Released from Jail in Iraq
Newsday journalists Matthew McAllester and Moises Saman, who had been missing in Iraq since last week, crossed the border into Jordan today and said they were safe and in good health.

April 01, 2003 IRAQ - British War Dead Cemetery Desecrated by French
Eleven thousand Allied soldiers lie buried in well-tended peace at Etaples, on the Channel coast near Le Touquet, victims of the struggle by Anglo-Saxons to liberate the French from the German invaders during the First World War. Last week the obelisk raised in their memory was defiled by red-painted insults such as "Rosbeefs go home"; "May Saddam prevail and spill your blood"; and, in a reference to the long-dead casualties beneath the manicured turf, "They are soiling our land".

April 01, 2003 IRAQ - ICRC Sees Iraq POWs, No Access on US POWs
The international Red Cross yesterday began visiting prisoners of war held by coalition forces in Iraq but has yet to receive word that it can see American POWs taken by the Iraqi military.

April 01, 2003 PGW - The First Casualty - Scott Speicher Rebroadcast on CBS
When 60 Minutes II started working on this story more than two years ago, Speicher was listed as Killed in Action despite the fact that the U.S. military had never looked for him, and that there was no evidence that he ever died. In January 2001, Speicher made history again. The Navy changed his status from Killed in Action to Missing in Action. The U.S. military has never done that before - not in the Civil War or the World Wars and not in Korea or in Vietnam. The Navy did it because it finally admitted that it doesn't know whether Scott Speicher is dead or alive.

April 01, 2003 IRAQ - POW Treatment - A Study in Contrast
The U.S.-led coalition is now holding more than 4,500 Iraqi prisoners, including paramilitary fighters who may face some type of criminal tribunal rather than being released after the war as is customary with most prisoners of war.

April 01, 2003 IRAQ - Jesse Jackson Contacted on Behalf of Missing Journalists
The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Monday he has told the families of two missing Newsday journalists last seen in Baghdad that he would try to help track down their whereabouts. Jackson, who has had success in negotiating the release of American prisoners in past conflicts, said relatives of Newsday correspondent Matthew McAllester, 33, and photographer Moises Saman, 29, asked him Sunday to help locate the two men.

POW-MIA Issue Update May 2003