|
POW/MIA Committee 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. Decades missing in Vietnam, 'they're going home now' DANANG, Vietnam, June 25, 2009 (AFP) - The hot sun was almost 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 ]Return to Makin Island True story of the recovery of 19 US Marines Killed in Action on Makin Island in WWII and their return home to Arlington National Cemetery 58 years later. Story and music arranged by Pat Mendoza Trumpet: Steve Weist. Singers: the Islanders and Pat Mendoza. LETTER TO THE VVA MEMBERSHIP In The VVA Veteran (Vol. 29 No. 1, January/February 2009), an article about the POW issue by former Congressman Bill Hendon, titled “Cold Case,” was the front-cover story. Nobody on the POW/MIA Committee, and to my knowledge, nobody on the Board of Directors or the Executive Board were aware of this article until it arrived in the membership’s mail boxes. We strongly feel that the position advocated in this article has serious creditability problems among many individuals, groups, and organizations, past and present, who have worked or who are directly affected by the POW/MIA issue. We recommend that everyone research the internet on Mr. Hendon and develop your own conclusions regarding this issue. At the very minimum, if the Editor and Publisher had decided to provide space to Mr. Hendon to publish his opinions in VVA’s National Publication, the committee should have been given the opportunity to submit its position on the issue. One only needs to read the National POW/MIA Resolutions to know the mandates that guide the Committee. The problem created by this unfortunate article is serious. Our work for the past two decades has been to build our credibility, sensitivity, and trustworthiness with DPMO, JPAC, and the veterans organization and government of Vietnam. By implying that the VVA supports the position advocated in this article, we have badly damaged, if not destroyed, all of this work. With that work goes our ability to influence the effort to continue bringing home our own. We would like to state that we, the VVA’s POW/MIA Committee, do not support the position of this article. We are greatly embarrassed by the implication of this article being in the National VVA Publication, and we apologize to our friends and partners in the POW/MIA community for the damage this will cause. 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 ]
Veterans Initiative Download
The VI Brochure:
|
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
|
about
vvacommunity
membershipbenefitsgov't
affairs public
relations events
publicationsformsmarketplace
vva
committees & task forces | avva | household
goods donation | veterans support foundation | links
of interest | sponsors
membership brochure | join vva | renew your membership | locate your local chapter | membership notes update | membership services
vva publications | current year press releases | public service announcements | logos | media request sign-up
