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POW/MIA Committee
sailor missing from korean war identified The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors. U.S. Navy Ensign Robert W. Langwell, of Columbus, Ind., will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on July 12. On Oct. 1, 1950, Langwell was serving on the minesweeper USS Magpie when it sank after striking an enemy mine off the coast of Chuksan-ri, South Korea. Twelve crewmen were rescued, but Langwell was one of 20 men lost at sea. pow/mia update To view the latest POW/MIA Update from the National League of Families, click here. Committee minutes VETERANS INITIATIVE PROGRAM I must express the appreciation of the VIP “Team Tiger” and the POW/MIA Committee to the VVA National Board of Directors for the support and encouragement to make this trip possible. In my opinion as one who has made numerous trips, this one shall be marked as one of the most successful. This trip was memorable in many ways. The time was right and more importantly the reputation, conduct and support offered by the Viet Nam Veterans of America since 1994 on many missions has earned a place of great respect for us and what we stand for from the Vietnamese government, the people and mostly the veterans of the American-Vietnamese War. It is this respect for the warrior mentality that is and has led us to an environment of cooperation which has brought home thousands of soldiers who were not accounted for at the wars end. This accounting means the whole world for many American and Vietnamese mothers, fathers, siblings and friends. [ Read the report ] Annual Report The VVA Veteran March/april 2010 As for the progress on the Resolutions pertaining to the POW/MIA Committee, I invite your attention to the January-February issue of The VVA Veteran. In continuation of that, I want to mention some of the effort that goes into a mission trip to Vietnam—or elsewhere, for that matter. We are fine tuning our March 10 trip, and we may be in country when you read this. It begins with hours of effort in gathering, investigating, documenting, and preparing a case file for each incident. Jim Lyons and Mokie Porter do a lot of this work. As of our last trip, we had 287 cases on file. The team makes contact with our sponsors in Hanoi: the Viet Nam/USA Society, which is a branch of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations. Approval for a working visa is produced by them, sent to the embassy in Washington, and the team members send in applications for their visas. We don’t know in advance if or when we will have case files to deliver, or whether we will have new witnesses or specially talented people like Steve Hiller, who was on our last trip, or Dan Tucker, who will be on this trip. So we make sure adequate funding is available. That sometimes takes extra effort on our part to raise outside revenue. Domestic and overseas air travel is coordinated for each team member and the tickets are purchased as early as possible to get affordable seats. Meanwhile, we are proposing and fine tuning itineraries with our Vietnam friends, JPAC, and State Department personnel. It is not an easy task to get everyone on the same page. In-country travel by land and air, as well as lodging, must be arranged early. Meetings are arranged with all of our contacts throughout the trip. This March trip will be one of our shorter ones, lasting eighteen days. In that time we will travel about sixty-five hours; hold twenty-six formal meetings; visit three field sites, including one of our own JFAs; and travel by land and air from Hanoi to Hue, Quang Tri Province, Khe Sanh, FSB Tomahawk, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City. On rest days, we will work on our team evaluations and reports. Long before departure, our team members get their health needs updated, pack, arrange finances, and work on their unique roles. While in country, our hosts proudly take us to see many culturally fascinating places. This cultural diplomacy generates friendships and understandings. We do the same thing with our foreign visitors when we have the opportunity to display America. Upon return to the United States, it takes most of us a couple of weeks to recover from the effort and to adjust to the twelve-hour difference. I don’t know about the others, but I think I’m really getting older. Well done, all team members—past, present, and future. The POW/MIA Affairs Committee: Gary Jones, Chair; Grant Coates, Vice Chair. Members: Jack Devine, Al Cummings, Darrol L. Brown, Bill Duker, James Kuschel, Michael Marks, Bob Johnston, Bob Maras, Patty Darwin, and Lee Fisher. AVVA: Kaye Gardner. Staff Advisors: Sharon Hodge and Mokie Porter.
COMMITTEE REPORT: BY GRANT COATES, COMMITTEE MEMBER Researching the records that the Veterans Initiative Program has amassed over the past 19 years has developed a myriad of feelings for me. Reading first-hand stories of combat has brought past war experiences present. Many war memories that I suppressed years ago are coming back vividly after reading statements and after-action reports and looking at topographical battle maps and hand-drawn diagrams. I feel as though I have walked in the writers’ shoes. Many veterans have written personal comments along with information on deaths on the battlefield. The common wish of many veterans is for the enemy dead, and their families, to have peace. As time passed, the hatred and barbaric actions of the wars and the grieving for fellow soldiers has become a desire for peace of mind through forgiveness from the souls of the former enemy. These veterans speak for the dead. National POW/MIA Committee October 9, 2009 Remains of Last 2 Australia MIAs in Vietnam Return The remains of Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver were found last month at a remote jungle site where their bomber crashed 39 years ago. After an official handover in Hanoi a day earlier, the two flag-draped coffins were honored at a military ceremony at the Richmond air base outside Sydney. ''They paid the ultimate sacrifice in serving their country,'' Defense Personnel Minister Greg Combet said at the service. ''Australia can finally lay these brave airmen to rest and honor their memory.'' When Australia withdrew its last combat troops from Vietnam in late 1971, the bodies of six Australians remained behind. All have now been found and repatriated. Official interest in Australia for finding and repatriating Australia's missing war dead was revived in 2007 after a veterans' organization found the bodies of two soldiers. Another soldier was found that year, with a fourth found last year. The hunt for the two airmen, however, was complicated because no one knew where they had crashed. The two airmen, both 24, went missing Nov. 3, 1970, after a night bombing mission over central Vietnam. It is not known what caused their crash. In April, a search conducted by the Australian army history unit found wreckage in thick jungle on a hillside in remote Quang Nam province, near the Laos border. The remains of the men were found in July and identified by Vietnamese and Australian forensic specialists. The United States still has nearly 1,800 servicemen unaccounted for throughout Southeast Asia following the war, which ended in 1975. Some 1,335 are unaccounted for in Vietnam alone. U.S. Navy Ship Joins Joint Humanitarian Search Effort Off Vietnam Coast Hanoi, Vietnam – The longstanding cooperation between the United States and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) on accounting for Americans missing from the Vietnam War broadened June 11 with the deployment of a U.S. Navy oceanographic survey ship to conduct search operations off the coast of Vietnam. During the 95th search mission in Vietnam, which began May 25 and is scheduled until June 24 2009, representatives from the U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) and the Vietnam Office for Seeking Missing Persons (VNOSMP) boarded the USNS Bruce C. Heezen, an oceanographic survey ship, for the humanitarian operation. [ Read press release ]Army Seeks DNA Samples from Families of
MIA Soldiers WASHINGTON, March 19, 2008 – More than 6,300 families need to be located to collect DNA samples for the purpose of identifying missing soldiers from World War II and the wars in Korea and Vietnam, a U.S. Army official said yesterday. POW/MIA COMMITTEE October 2007 [ See complete report ]
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The VI Brochure:
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FROM THE VVA "The POW / MIA Committee shall seek and promote the fullest accounting of those still listed as POW / MIAs in Southeast Asia and any other areas of the world, regardless of the conflict that initiated their disappearance. The committee shall disseminate information received on the POW / MIA issue to the National Board of Directors, State Councils, Chapters, POW / MIA families and friends, and VVA membership as called upon." Federal Research Division POW/MIA Database Interested Organizations Forgotten Eagles - MI
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