June 2001
Summary of news for the entire month.
For recent and daily news, please go to: InterNetwork
June 30, 2001 NAF Bits 'N' Pieces
Summary of News
June 29, 2001 Peterson Considering Florida Run
America's first postwar ambassador to Vietnam says he won't make a hasty decision whether to seek the Democratic nomination for governor of Florida. But his words suggest an eagerness to run.
June 28, 2001 VN Names New Ambassador
Vietnam has named a career diplomat with economic expertise as its new ambassador to the United States, state-controlled media reported Thursday.
June 27, 2001 Update Line
Family Update
June 26, 2001 Graves Registry
From the Quartermaster Professional Bulletin
June 25, 2001 24 WW I MIAs Discovered
Known as "The Chums" in life, they lay together in death, their arms linked. But the 24 British World War I soldiers unearthed near Arras in northern France will never be identified and are likely to be reinterred under headstones labeled "Known Only to God," the Ministry of Defense says.
June 24, 2001 Memorial Activities
Army Quartermaster Museum - Fort Lee, Virginia - Memorial Affairs Activities - Republic of Vietnam -Compiled by the Mortuary Affairs Center (MAC)
June 23, 2001 DOD News Release - Identifications
A U.S. Air Force pilot and a Marine Corps aerial observer missing in action from the Vietnam War have been identified and are being returned to their families.
June 22, 2001 24 WW I MIAs Found In France
Archaeologists said Monday they have unearthed the remains of 24 British World War I soldiers at the construction site of a BMW car factory in France.
June 21, 2001 Statue To WW I Deserters
A statue of a teenage British soldier facing execution for desertion in World War I was unveiled in the central England town of Lichfield Thursday. The statute at the National Memorial Arboretum Thursday is the centerpiece of a memorial to wartime deserters.
June 20, 2001 Family Conference Reminder - Washington, DC NAF & NLF Conference Schedules for June Annual Meetings
June 20, 2001 Outrage... DOD Bills Family for MIA Remains Return
Family Gets $700 Bill For Shipping Vet's Body - The family of a Vietnam veteran is upset after receiving a $700 bill.
June 20, 2001 DOD News Release - SEA Identifications
A U.S. Air Force pilot and a Marine Corps aerial observer missing in action from the Vietnam War have been identified and are being returned to their families.
June 19, 2001 WW II Memorial Builder Used Slave Labor
Federal officials yesterday defended their decision to award a construction contract for the World War II memorial to an American firm whose German parent company used slave labor during World War II.
June 18, 2001 WW II Ex-POW Commentary
" Thankfully, other than the terror of being bombed at night by our own aircraft (our camp was adjacent to a German V2 rocket launching site), my experience was mostly benign compared with that of other Allied POWs held by the Japanese and Germans."
June 15, 2001 Oliver Stone & Garwood
Columbia Pictures is playing down the possibility that writer-director Oliver Stone will make a movie about Bobby Garwood, the only U.S. serviceman convicted of collaborating with the enemy in Vietnam.
June 14, 2001 Flag Day History
June 13, 2001 Book Review: Tiger Cage
" But people shouldn't believe everything they read, and that's exactly the point behind Tiger Cage--An Untold Story, a shockingly revealing new book about how the press was manipulated into misleading the American public about the treatment of prisoners in Vietnam."
June 12, 2001 NLF Update
Family Update
June 12, 2001 WW II POW Recognized
World War II Veteran Finally Recognized for His Heroism; Thanks to Cal Guard, Vet to Receive Distinguished Flying Cross.Riley, who is currently fighting cancer, was the ball turret gunner in the aircraft "Destiny's Child" when the plane was shot down over Leipzig, Germany in 1944. Riley was a prisoner of war until June 6, 1945 when the war ended.
June 11, 2001 NLF Update Line
Family Update
June 10, 2001 HR 1198 IH
Justice for United States Prisoners of War Act of 2001 (Introduced in the House). To preserve certain actions in Federal court brought by members of the United States Armed Forces held as prisoners of war by Japan during World War II against Japanese nationals seeking compensation for mistreatment or failure to pay wages in connection with labor performed in Japan to the benefit of the Japanese nationals, and for other purposes.
June 09, 2001 Missing US Sailor Turns Up Safe
After fleeing automatic gunfire and hiding for 30 hours on a volcano, a U.S. Navy lieutenant stumbled lost through rebel territory - a dose of luck that prevented his capture.
June 07, 2001 Ex WWII POW May Face War Crimes
A trial to determine whether to strip U.S. citizenship from John Demjanjuk, the man once thought to be Nazi death camp guard "Ivan the Terrible," ended on Thursday without the 81-year-old Ukrainian immigrant taking the stand.
June 06, 2001 WWII Remains Recovered
Remains believed to be those of the six-man crew of a World War II bomber have been located in Tunisia and will be repatriated today in ceremonies in Tunis.
June 04, 2001 WWII Soldier Found & Remembered
merican and German officials dedicated a memorial Monday near the site where the remains of an American soldier listed missing in action for more than a half a century were found last year.
June 03, 2001Australian WW II Reparations
The government announced plans last week for $12,000 payments to surviving POWs and the widows of the deceased. The Australian Democrats, a minor political party, said about 25 gay people who had long-term relationships with former POWs should be eligible.
June 03, 2001 NAF Bits 'N' Pieces
Summary of News
June 02, 2001 Korean War Momentum???
Since the family conferences are fast approaching, we wonder what DPMO and CIL-HI will have to offer Korean War families on the progress of identifications on Punch Bowl remains exhumed last year and if there is no significant progress, why not?
June 02, 2001 Rolling Thunder Press Editorials
s the thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts of Rolling Thunder descend on Washington on Memorial Day weekend, this combat veteran has a simple request: Quiet down and listen up for a minute.
June 01, 2001 Book Review: Ghost Soldiers
Early in 1945, as American troops landed on Luzon, 513 prisoners of war, mostly survivors of the infamous Bataan death march, remained in the miserable Cabanatuan camp northeast of Manila. In 1942 there had been 12,000. Many had died of malnutrition and maltreatment...
June 01, 2001 Book Review: Glory Denied
Thompson's experience was somewhat different from that of most other U.S. POWs in Vietnam. He had been captured in South Vietnam and remained under the control of Viet Cong forces for several years before being transferred to the North in July 1968. Although virtually all POWs reported that their captors had treated them brutally, living conditions for those held in the South were even worse than in North Vietnam. Thompson suffered severely from mistreatment, disease and malnutrition, and when he was eventually shifted to a camp near Hanoi, other American prisoners were shocked at his poor physical condition and amazed that he was still alive.
POW-MIA Issue Update July 2001