POW/MIA Affairs Committee Update November/December 2021

BY GRANT COATES, CHAIR

On October 1 Retired U.S. Navy Adm. Jon Kreitz, the former DPAA Deputy Director for Operations, joined the National League of POW/MIA Families as Chief Executive Officer, replacing Ann Mills-Griffiths. She had stepped down from that position after the League’s 2019-21 Board of Directors voted overwhelmingly to approve hiring Adm. Kreitz. As DPAA Deputy Director, Adm. Kreitz helped lead a record increase in the return of Americans missing from past conflicts. He retired from the U.S. Navy in December 2019 after 37-plus years of service.

The League’s Board of Directors re-elected Mills-Griffiths Chair of the Board. In that capacity, she will continue to work at the League office and participate in, and chair, its quarterly Board meetings.

VVA’s POW/MIA Affairs Committee and Veterans Initiative Program have maintained a very positive relationship with the League and support its efforts to continue awareness of the POW/MIA issue. We have met with both Kreitz and Mills-Griffiths and share the same goal: the ongoing mission of obtaining the fullest possible accounting of all missing U.S. service personnel from all conflicts.

According to DPAA, as of August 10 there are 1,584 still missing from the Vietnam War. There have been no U.S. personnel accounted for from the Vietnam War since September 21, 2020.

The countries and number of missing are Vietnam-1,244 (North Vietnam-442, South Vietnam-802), Laos-285, Cambodia-48, and the Peoples Republic of China-7.

The total accounted for since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 is 998 Americans. Since the April 30, 1975, end of the Vietnam War, recoveries were made in the following countries: Vietnam, 673; Laos, 280; Cambodia, 42; and the PRC, 3. In addition, 63 U.S. personnel were accounted for between 1973 and 1975, and recovered in the following countries: 9 were from Laos, 53 from Vietnam, and 1 from Cambodia, equating to a grand total of 1,061.

As of October 13 DPAA has identified 358 of the 394 Sailors and Marines missing from the U.S.S. Oklahoma, sunk in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. There remain 36 unidentified.

The Veterans Initiative program needs your help. Objects taken from the battlefields of Vietnam are more than souvenirs or war trophies. Maps, stories, after-action reports, pictures, and other military items may have a story that could result in finding the location of missing war dead. Contact the Veterans Initiative at:

Veterans Initiative Program
Vietnam Veterans of America
8719 Colesville Rd., Suite 100
Silver Spring, MD 20910
vi@vva.org


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