POW/MIA Affairs Committee Update July/August 2016

There remain 1, 619 missing from the Vietnam War. Since 1975, 965 men have been accounted for. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) most recently accounted for Lt. Cmdr. Frederick P. Crosby, U.S. Navy, listed as KIA/BNR in North Vietnam on June 1, 1965. No information is yet available on his recovery date, but his remains were identified in May. Also recently accounted for is Maj. Dean A. Klenda, 67th Tactical Fighter Squadron, U.S. Air Force, who was lost over Vietnam on September 17, 1965. His remains were identified on March 1.

U.S. and Russian delegates completed the 20th Jubilee Plenum of the United States-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs May 24 in Arlington, Virginia. They discussed cooperating on the accounting mission.

The USRJC was established in 1992 to determine the fates of Americans believed to be missing in the territory of the former Soviet Union, or about whom the Russians may have information. The second goal of the Commission is to determine the fates of Russian servicemen still missing from various conflicts. All agreed to expand archival research opportunities in both countries.

The U.S. chair of the Commission is retired Gen. Robert “Doc” Foglesong. Other U.S. members include Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Reps. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) and Sam Johnson (R-Tex.), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Kathleen Kavalec, and DPAA Director Michael Linnington. The Russian chair is Col. Gen. Valery Vostrotin. Other Russian members include parliamentarians, heads of major Russian archives, officials from the Ministry of Defense, and the Russian Red Cross.

The next session of the USRJC is scheduled for fall 2017 in Russia.

 

Grant T. Coates, Co-Chair

 

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