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POW/MIA Committee

Decades missing in Vietnam, 'they're going home now'
   by Ian Timberlake

DANANG, Vietnam, June 25, 2009 (AFP) - The hot sun was almost
unbearable but Alan Segal took off his only protection, a US Marines
baseball cap, and held it over his heart to honour fellow servicemen
whose names he did not even know.
 
[ Read more ]

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.

Return to Makin Island
youtube.com

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
From: Gary Jones, chair POW/MIA Committee;
Bill Duker, Director of the Veterans initiative Program, and, the VVA POW/MIA Committee

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
By Kristen Noel
American Forces Press Service

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.

[See complete article]

POW/MIA COMMITTEE
Veterans Initiative Program mission trip REPORT

October 2007 [ See complete report ]

Veterans Initiative

Download The VI Brochure:
A Little Piece of Your Mind May Give You Peace of Mind

Would you search your memory for a war casualty?
Would you look back to a time long ago? Looking for personal items belonging to Vietcong or NVA regulars. Click here for more information

FROM THE VVA
CONSTITUTION

"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."

History of the POW/MIA Flag

Interested Organizations Forgotten Eagles - MI