August 2001

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

August 31, 2001 DPMO Update
Jerry Jennings Appointed DASD DPMO

August 30, 2001 KW - Ex. State Dept Official Investigated
Kenneth Quinones, who had been an analyst on North Korean affairs with the State Department between 1992 and 1997, pleaded guilty in Newark, New Jersey, federal court to the charges that he lied about his relationship with David Chang, a New Jersey businessman and Bright & Bright Corp., a corporation affiliated with Chang.

August 28, 2001 VN - Mother Finally Has Her Son
There's a plot and a headstone for Rudy Ray Becerra in Greenlawn Memorial Park in Rosenberg, Texas. But his body has never been there. His mother, Geneva Martinez, has refused to visit the vacant grave.

August 27, 2001 KW - Veneris Speaks
Pvt. James George Veneris is one of the original 21 POWs who chose to remain in North Korea at the conclusion of the war. 19 eventually returned to the US. Veneris was the subject of discussion as late as January 2001 when DASD Jones traveled to China and subsequently met with Red Cross personnel who introduced the "handler' of Veneris and Adams" (Howard Gayle.)

August 27, 2001 POW Bring Them Home Alive Broadcast Resumes

August 26, 2001 S.1226 POW-MIA Flag Display Act
A bill to require the display of the POW/MIA flag at the World War II memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

August 26, 2001 S.1339 Gulf War Asylum Act
S. 1339. A bill to amend the Bring Them Home Alive Act of 2000 to provide an asylum program with regard to American Persian Gulf War POW/MIAs, and for other purposes.

August 26, 2001 POW-MIA Freedom Radio

August 26, 2001 WW II - Nurse-POW Receives Recognition
A World War II Army nurse who endured almost three years as a prisoner of war was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal Aug. 20 at the Women's Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery.

August 26, 2001 SEA - Ambassador to Vietnam
President George W. Bush today announced his intention to nominate Raymond Burghardt to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

August 26, 2001 WW II - Ex-Prisoner 50 Years Later
Brown and the other Americans had been taken prisoner by the Nazis after they were shot down. On Aug. 26, 1944, they were to pass through the town on the outskirts of Frankfurt by train en route to a prison camp. But the railways had been destroyed and they were forced to walk.

August 25, 2001 KW-CW - Korean War Remains Returned
Remains believed to be those of nine servicemen killed in the Korean War were returned to U.S. soil Friday as military investigators began the lengthy task of trying to identify them.

August 25, 2001 SEA - NLF Update
Family Update

August 25, 2001 SEA - NLF Update Line
Family Update

August 24, 2001 WW II - US Assists RAF With WW II Recovery
The 56th Rescue Squadron here teamed up with the Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service on Aug. 13 to recover the remains of four British airmen killed in an air crash south of Akureyri. What made this particular recovery mission unique is that the aircraft and the remains of the airmen have been buried in a glacier for 50 years.

August 24, 2001 Lost Dogtags, Found
In 1994 a tourist to Hue City, Vietnam, purchased more than 1,400 dog tags believing they were from Americans listed as missing in action (MIA). A check of the dog tags revealed that although none appear to be those of an MIA, most are genuine and were worn by Americans during the war.

August 24, 2001 Transcript of Wolfowitz Remarks Before the NLF
Those servicemen who died in the line of duty were dedicated to a noble cause, seeking answers about their fellow servicemen for themselves and their families. Their colleagues maintain that dedication with pride. It is a sacred trust we owe to those who serve. If they fall on the field of battle, we, their country, will do everything in our power to find them.

August 23, 2001 Something For Everyone

August 23, 2001 Phonies, Frauds & Wannabes
"He's just a fraud." "He's been listed as a fraud for five or six years. I carry 668 of these frauds on our list now. What they think is that 28 years has gone by and people won't know the difference, so they can just do anything they want."

August 23, 2001 KW/CW - A Long, Lonely Journey Home
The drenching rains and gusts of Typhoon Pabuk calmed as the U.N. honor guard stepped from a C-130 Hercules, bearing human remains believed to belong to a U.S. serviceman missing in action from the Korean War.

August 22, 2001 KW/CW - Another South Korean POW Escapes North Korea
A former South Korean soldier who was captured by communist forces during the 1950-53 Korean War has returned home after fleeing the North, the government said Wednesday.

August 22, 2001 VN - US Ambassador to Vietnam Nomination
Burghardt has run the Taipei office, which is an embassy in all but name, for two years. The period has been marked by tension between China and Taiwan, including repeated threats by Beijing against the island it considers merely a renegade province.

August 21, 2001 Moscow & POWs - Fascinating Reading - Tivnan Article
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to the attention of my colleagues an article published in last Sunday's Los Angeles Times magazine, entitled `On the Trail of the MIA's' by Edward Tivnan. The author of this article raises important questions and brings to light details about the POW/MIA issue heretofore unknown.

August 20, 2001 WW II - Japanese Hell Ships
Much of the information presented here comes from a compilation by four survivors of the Oryoku Maru "in hopes that, by its very existence, we might find other survivors and to advise relatives of the non-survivors the true story of the Oryoku Maru."

August 19, 2001 POW-MIA Freedom Radio Broadcast

August 18, 2001 WW II - Makin Island Raiders Make it Home to Arlington
Thirteen World War II Marines are being laid to rest at Washington's Arlington National Cemetery in a long-awaited homecoming more than half a century after their deaths.

August 17, 2001 KW - Possible American Remains Returned From NK
Remains believed to be those of nine U.S. soldiers missing in action from the 1950-53 Korean War will be flown to Yokota Air Base in Japan from Pyongyang next week, the Pentagon said on Friday.

August 14, 2001 WW II - DOD Advisory - Makin Island Raiders Honored at Arlington
The commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James L. Jones, will speak at a memorial service for Marines of the 2nd Raider Battalion who were killed during a raid on Butaritari Island in 1942. The service and subsequent burial will take place at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, Aug. 17 at 11 a.m. EDT.

August 14, 2001 WW II - DOD Advisory - Makin Island Raiders Honored at Arlington
The 19 Marines were killed during a raid on Butaritari Island, in the Makin Atoll, Aug. 17-18, 1942. They were members of the 2nd Raider Bn., a Marine unit organized and trained to conduct commando and guerrilla-style attacks behind enemy lines.

August 13, 2001 CW - Francis Gary Powers
Forty years before the April 1 crash-landing of a U.S. Navy P-3E Aries reconnaissance aircraft on Chinese soil, U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers parachuted onto a field outside the farming village of Sverdlovsk in the former Soviet Union. He had fallen to Earth from the incredible altitude of 71,500 feet after his spy plane was fatally damaged by a near miss from a Russian missile.

August 11, 2001 SEA - Humanitarian Who Searched For POWs-MIAs Passes
Sr. Col. Tran Van Bien fought against the French and Americans on several fronts. Several of his children died fighting and are still unaccounted for. "He was a soldier's soldier," recalled Ron Ward, an American who worked with the Vietnamese officer. The 65-year-old Bien died on a mission to find the remains of American soldiers assumed dead for more than a quarter of a century.

August 10, 2001 Pretenders, Phonies & Wannabes
A growing number of fraud hunters, many of them veterans motivated by outrage, are seeking to combat an apparent surge in wartime fabrication. "I'm convinced some of them could pass a polygraph test," Mr. Burkett said. "They often know more about the battle, they study it and work at it much harder than the guy who was there. Because the guy who was there only remembers six feet on either side."

August 10, 2001 WW II - Ex-POW Recives Posthumous Ceremony
A special Navy ceremony Thursday morning honored a San Diego man who spent several years as a Japanese prisoner of war.

August 09, 2001 WW II - New Warning for Former POWs
Thousands of veterans exposed to cancer-causing radiation during atomic tests conducted decades ago could find it easier to get compensation under a new regulation aimed at giving them the same treatment as civilians.

August 09, 2001 SEA - Book Review
NO PEACE, NO HONOR Nixon, Kissinger, and Betrayal in Vietnam By Larry Berman, Free Press

August 09, 2001 SEA - NLF Update Line
Family Update

August 08, 2001 SEA - Glory Denied - Behind the Story
A new book about Floyd J. Thompson, the longest serving American prisoner of war, promises to be a major contribution to the Vietnam War literature.

August 08, 2001 SEA - Another Mass Grave Uncovered
Vietnamese authorities have located a mass grave containing the remains of Communist soldiers killed during the Vietnam War - the second one in a week, an official said Wednesday.

August 07, 2001 POW-MIA You Are Not Forgotten

August 06, 2001 SEA Tet Offensive Mass Grave Discovered
Authorities in central Vietnam have recovered the remains of 37 North Vietnamese soldiers killed in the 1968 Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, an official said Tuesday.

August 06, 2001 WW II Site to be Excavated
A team of 10 specialists left Hawaii for Russia yesterday to bring home the remains of seven Navy airmen missing in action from World War II.

August 05, 2001 Family Update Reminder
Aug 18 - St. Paul, MN

August 03, 2001 WW II : US POWs Owed Apology
In what could be a first, Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi said Monday that Japan should apologize for its mistreatment of American prisoners of war during World War II.

August 03, 2001 Book Review: Glory Denied
In telling his story ‹ a story of torture, escape attempts and incredible, almost superhuman endurance ‹ Mr. Philpott's book would seem to cast great credit on Colonel Thompson, who has never become widely known. And yet when asked if he likes "Glory Denied," Colonel Thompson, who had a stroke 20 years ago that impairs his speech, answers quickly and decisively.

August 02, 2001 WW II: Aircraft Uncovered in China
A wrecked World War II-era American warplane has been found in a river in southwest China, and officials are trying to salvage it, a state-run newspaper said Thursday.

August 02, 2001 SEA: DoD Announces Remains Identifications
Remains of a U.S. Air Force pilot missing in action from the Vietnam War have been identified and are being returned to his family. The formerly missing serviceman is Air Force Maj. Victor J. Apodaca, Jr. of Englewood, Colo.

August 01, 2001 NLF Update Line
Family Update August 01, 2001 K-CW: Suspected NK Remains Go To Hawai'i
The remains believed to be those of a U.S. Marine uncovered by last weekšs heavy rains were given an honor guard salute Friday before being sent to Hawaii for identification.

POW-MIA Issue Update September 2001