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National Alliance of Families For The Return of America's Missing Servicemen World War II - Korea - Cold War - Vietnam - Gulf War Dolores Alfond - 425-881-1499 Lynn O'Shea --- 718-846-4350 Web Site http://www.nationalalliance.org email -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] February 9, 2002 Bits N Pieces We Extend Our Deepest Sympathy To The Families Of Our Servicemen and Women Who Have Lost Their Lives In America's War On Terrorism. We Honor Those Servicemen and Women Who Serve Our Country. ################ The National Alliance of Families mourns the passing of Matthew Carr, brother of POW/MIA Donald Carr. Matthew passed in December. The National Alliance of Families mourns the passing, on January 20th, of POW/MIA advocate Lillian Roberts of Hobart, Indiana. To the Carr and Roberts' families we offer our deepest sympathy. ################# 457 South Korean POWs Believed To Be Alive In North - from the Korea Herald, January 18th, "The Defense Ministry said yesterday that 457 former South Korean soldiers are being held in North Korea after being captured by communist forces during the Korean War (1950-53)."We have secured a list of 457 South Korean prisoners of war (POWs) believed to be alive in the North," a ministry spokesman said." "The number is an increase from 385, which the ministry tallied in July last year. A total of 23 South Korean POWs have returned home after fleeing the North since 1994, including six last year, the official said. An interagency task force met Wednesday to review the government measures on POWs, including the legal status of POWs remaining in the North. The South's POWs in the North are considered deceased, and their families are granted government assistance. The official said their legal status will not be changed until they are confirmed alive upon their return to South Korean territory." The government will continue efforts to trace the POWs in the North and have all of them repatriated, and assist returned POWs in the South in accordance with law," the official said. The task force first convened in January in 1999 and held the sixth meeting this week. In 2000, Seoul repatriated more than 60 former North Korean spies and soldiers following the inter-Korean summit in June. But the North returned none of the South Korean POWs or others believed to have been abducted." ################# Make That 456 - The 24th South Korean POW Held By North Korea Escapes - from the Associated Press, February 1, 2002, "Seoul, South Korea (AP) - A former South Korean soldier who was captured by communist forces during the 1950-53 Korean War has returned home after fleeing the North, the government said Friday." "Kim Jong-wan, 73, was among 13 people who arrived recently in South Korea after escaping from North Korea, said the National Intelligence Service in a news release. The others were North Korean citizens, and two will be reunited with family members who had already fled to the South." "The man was taken prisoner during a battle in central Korea during the 1950-53 war. He spent most of his life working at a coal mine in the North before escaping in December, the agency said. It did not reveal other details, such as the former soldier's escape route. Most North Korean defectors arrive via China. But South Korean authorities usually do not identify China out of respect for that country's relations with North Korea." "Over the years, 24 South Korean POWs have returned home after fleeing the North. South Korea believes North Korea still holds 300 South Korean soldiers captured during the war. Pyongyang denies it . . . " ############### U.S. Navy At Cam Ranh Bay??? - Dateline Hanoi, from the Associated Press, February 2, 2002, By David Thurber - "The United States is interested in closer military ties with former enemy Vietnam, including visits by U.S. Navy ships, the commander of American forces in the Pacific said Saturday." "Admiral Dennis Blair, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, said military ties between the countries still focus on their past war, including attempts to account for personnel listed as missing in action. "I think it's time to transition and look more toward the future," he said. Blair, the first recent Pacific commander in chief who did not fight in Vietnam, met in Hanoi with Vietnamese Defense Minister Pham Van Tra and other military officials . . . " "... Blair described this week's visit, his first, as productive. "I think we're moving in a positive direction in military relations," he said. Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said Blair's visit was "an important step in accelerating the multifaceted cooperation between Vietnam and the U.S.," the official Vietnam News Agency reported." "Overall ties between the nations, although strained by periodic disagreements over human rights, have warmed since the approval in December of an agreement establishing normal trade ties. Washington agreed to lower its high tariffs on Vietnamese products, while Hanoi pledged to allow foreign companies to compete on more equal terms with its state-owned enterprises." "Blair said closer cooperation is possible in fighting terrorism, narcotics, international crime, piracy, and in humanitarian assistance and international peacekeeping. He said he expressed a U.S. interest in possible visits by American naval ships to Cam Ranh Bay, a former American base that Russia has leased since the Vietnam War but will relinquish this year..." "...Blair said the United States has no plans to wind down attempts to account for about 2,000 Americans still listed as missing in action in Indochina, including about 1,470 in Vietnam. "The commitment to pursue all possible leads remains the same," he said. Time is running out because memories by witnesses are fading more than 25 years after the war, he said. The MIA program was temporarily suspended last year after the crash April 7 of a helicopter carrying a search team. All seven Americans and nine Vietnamese on board were killed. The crash was attributed to pilot error compounded by deteriorating weather conditions...." Contradictions - regarding past relations with Vietnam Admiral Blair said "I think it's time to transition and look more toward the future," Regarding the missing, no mention of POWs he said "The commitment to pursue all possible leads remains the same." Which is it - Transition or Commitment and were have we heard the word "transition" before. Hint: check the "Strategic Plan" briefing slides. ############## >From Reuters, February 2, 2002 - The two sides discussed the possibility of U.S. ships being allowed to dock at the strategic Cam Ranh Bay port in central Vietnam. "The U.S. is very interested in having different arrangements in this part of the world," Blair said, but added that the talks were only in general terms. "Anything specific will have to come in the future." Cam Ranh Bay has for decades been leased by Russia and is considered one of the most crucial deep-water ports in the region. Russia has decided to withdraw from the base from this year before the rent-free lease expires in 2004." ############### Long Range Planning - From Bits N Pieces March 2000- From the Associated Press - by Jeff Barker "It has been a while since U.S. serviceman shipped out for the giant base at Cam Ranh Bay, but it could happen again if relations between the countries continue to warm says a congressman who met with top Vietnamese officials..." "...the possibility was raised informally at a forum... attended by several congressmen and a group of top officials of Vietnam's Communist government...." >From the Washington Post - by Thomas E. Ricks dateline Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - "...Cohen did not bury American or Vietnamese memories of the "American War," which is being remembered here in celebrations that will peak at the end of April. But his visit probably did a lot to ensure that the next time a U.S. defense secretary comes to Vietnam, the subjects on his agenda will be joint U.S.-Vietnamese projects, such as demining border areas, and perhaps even having a U.S. Navy ship pull into Cam Ranh Bay." "There's a willingness to forget about the past--or, I should say, to not dwell on the past," Cohen said in summarizing his talks in Hanoi, the capital, and Ho Chi Minh City." Both articles mention the possibility of U.S. ships sailing into Cam Ranh Bay. So, what is the difference between the AP article and the Washington Post article? The AP article was published in the New York Daily News on April 9th, 1990 , almost 10 years ago (now it's 12 year.) The Post article was published March 23, 2000. There has always been an agenda but it is not POWs. ################ Korean War POW/MIA Identified - From the Washington Times, February 1st, by Matthew Cella - " The remains of a U.S. Marine missing since the Korean War will be laid to rest today at Arlington National Cemetery." "Radar operator Sgt. James V. Harrell's plane disappeared while returning to base May 30, 1953, after escorting a convoy of B-29s on a bombing run in North Korea. His remains were found last summer on a beach just miles from the base in Kunsan, South Korea..." "...Sgt. Harrell - who was 21 when he was lost - was described as a prankster, a religious and patriotic young man who joined the Marines out of high school. "I'm greatly relieved because we're going to give him the honors he's due," said Sgt. Harrell's close friend and squadron mate Ron Stout, of Burien, Wash., who will be at today's ceremony. "It's an article of faith among Marines that you bring your dead home...." "...According to the Department of Defense, 88,000 U.S. service members are missing in action from all conflicts. The pilot of Sgt. Harrell's plane, Capt. Brown, remains one of them." ################## Vermont's Governor Searches For Brother - From the Associated Press, by Christopher Graff - "Charles Dean had just graduated from college and wanted to see the world. After more than a year on the road, with Japan, Australia and Indonesia behind him, he and a friend decided to head north from Laos to Nepal. They never made it: they were stopped at a checkpoint by Laotian communist insurgents, arrested and later killed." "Nearly 30 years later, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is seeking his brother's remains. In another step in his family's long and painful odyssey to unravel the mysteries behind the capture and death, he will travel next week to a remote section of Laos where the body is believed to be buried." "Dean said Wednesday he hopes his trip will help "begin closure" for his own family as well as for the families of the other 400 Americans still unaccounted for in Laos. "I recognize it may be pretty heavy duty emotionally for me," he said. "But there are a lot of families in our position and it may be that what I am doing can help them, as well as my own family." The governor will leave Sunday and travel to Japan and Thailand before arriving in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, two days later. From there he will travel by helicopter to a base camp being used by the task forces leading the excavations." "Charles Dean, a 24-year-old graduate of the University of North Carolina, and Neil Sharman of Australia were arrested in Laos by the Pathet Lao, a left-wing nationalist group that fought the U.S.-supported government in the 1960s and early 1970s before winning control of the country in 1975." "The two men were detained Sept. 4, 1974, while traveling down the Mekong River, and held in a small, remote prison camp. Authorities believe they were killed Dec. 14 while being driven toward Vietnam by their captors." "Either he tried to escape or they just executed him," said Dean, who is unsure why his brother traveled to Laos and whether the Vietnamese or Pathet Lao was responsible for his death. Charles Dean, although a civilian, is considered by the U.S. government to have been a prisoner of war..." "...Dean's visit will be his first, although both his mother and father made trips in 1974 and 1975 to push for the release of their son. The trip grew out of an exchange of letters Dean had with the Defense Department in which he expressed concern that the planned excavation of the possible burial site was being delayed." "In addition, he said his family's desire for action increased following the death last year of his father, Howard Dean Sr. "It would have been very difficult for me to go while my father was alive," said the governor. "It has been very hard for everybody, but it was very, very difficult for him." "Using information gathered from informants, mostly Lao, the government has worked for the past 30 years to piece together likely sites where Americans are buried or where planes or helicopters carrying Americans may have crashed. It has not been easy because much of the U.S. war effort in Laos, aimed primarily at cutting off communist Vietnamese supply lines that ran through the country, was secret." "We were bombing the hell out of them," said Dean. "We were denying we were bombing them while they were denying they were holding any American prisoners." "But through informal networks, the family learned in March or April 1975 that Charles Dean was dead. Since then the family has worked with the Defense Department and others to determine how and where he died." "A new effort by the joint task force to interview locals late in 2000 provided the most reliable information to date: That Dean and Sharman had been taken by truck and killed a few miles shy of the Vietnamese border along Route 8. It is there that Dean will travel. He is hopeful his efforts will prompt an excavation by the American-led team this summer. "That would be the ultimate closure," he said. " ############# Dean and Sharman - A Project X Case - The following appeared in the August 16 1997 edition of Bits N Pieces. "In the October 1995 edition of Bits 'N' Pieces you read about "Project X." For those unfamiliar with "Project X," (DPMO PAY ATTENTION) it was a study initiated in 1975 to evaluate the possibility of American POWs alive in Southeast Asia. The study ended in 1976. Its conclusion -- their was a possibility that 57 American servicemen could be alive in Southeast Asia in 1976...." ".... American Charles Dean and Australian Neil Sharman were civilian tourists in Laos when they disappeared in 1974. The "Project X" Rationale for Selection reads: "Source reports indicate that at Mr. Dean was in fact detained by the Pathet Lao. There have been no correlated reports of his death subsequent to the many reports of Mr. Dean's detention." "Many reports of Mr. Dean's detention" you bet! In preparation for a visit by Laos Peoples Democratic Republic (LPDR) Officials, to JCRC and CIL the Pentagon Operations Directorate initiated message traffic dated 25 October 1988. Directed to the Commander JCRC the message stated "... In early September 1974, Charles Dean and Neil Sharman departed Vientiane, Laos and boarded a boat bound for Thakhek. Reports indicate that while enroute to Thakhek, they were captured by the Pathet Lao at the Ban Pak Hin (unreadable) checkpoint, vicinity coordinates VE580400. After capture, they were brought upriver by boat to Ran Thong Lom where they were held for a short period." "Generally, all the informants who reported sighting Dean and Sharman after this time agree that the two were subsequently taken to Ban Phontan Kham Keut area for detention, and they probably arrived there about mid-September 1974." "Two informants stated Dean and Sharman had given them their photographs. One informant did have a confirmed photo of each of the two detainees in his possession at the time he provided his information. On the back of one photograph was writing in english which read: "Charles Dean, 1035 Park Ave., New York; USA." On the back of the other photo "Nio Sa Man, Australia" was written by the informant.... According to these informants, Dean and Sharman were still alive at Ban Phontan on 16 November 1974...." "...Five informants allege to have seen Dean and Sharman at Ban Photan... According to each of the sources, Dean and Sharman were still at Ban Phontan on 25 November 1974." " In February 1975, another informant reported that he had observed the interrogation sessions held with Dean and Sharman.... He stated that he had not personally observed Dean and Sharman at Ban Phontan since early November 1974 and he had been told that the two detainees had been taken to Sam Neua in mid December 1974...." "Four informants stated that they saw Dean and Sharman in a truck that briefly stopped at Ban Naliang, ... on December 1974.... One of these informants was also in possession of photographs of Dean and Sharman that he said were given to him by the detainees...." "...Other informants indicates that Dean and Sharman were seen at Ban Phontan during January and February 1975.... One of these informants claimed he observed two caucasians at Ban Phontan on 23 February 1975. His report provided the most current reliable information concerning the status of Dean and Sharman." A heavily censored Central Intelligence Agency report expands on the 23 February 1975 sighting stating "A source whose evidence was substantiated [word or words censored] stated he had seen Dean and Sharman in Ban Phon Tan on 23 February 1975." Note: all towns and locations are spelled as they appear in the quoted reports. ############ According to the AP article by Christopher Graff "Authorities believe they were killed Dec. 14 while being driven toward Vietnam by their captors." Yet the CIA states Dean and Sharman were seen alive on February 23rd 1975. Regarding the source of that information the CIA stated the "evidence was substantiated." ################# Archive of 1997 Bits N Pieces is now on our website at http://pages.prodigy.net/lynnpowmia/naf97.htm ################# After 60 years, no longer a Pearl Harbor 'unknown' From The Honolulu Advertiser - by Mike Gordon, Nov. 28, 2001 - "Few people have ever asked who was buried in grave C-258. The epitaph on the headstone on the lawn of Punchbowl seemed enough: "Unknown, Dec. 7, 1941." "In January, Thomas Hembree's remains; then marked as "unknown" were disinterred from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific for identification." "But now, days away from the 60th anniversary of the attack, Army identification experts in Hawaii have solved the mystery: This was the final resting place of Thomas Hembree, a 17-year-old apprentice seaman from the seaplane tender USS Curtiss." "His identification yesterday by the Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii ends an 11-year effort by Pearl Harbor survivor Ray Emory to solve the mystery. Forensic experts disinterred the remains from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in January. No other Pearl Harbor casualty at Punchbowl had ever been disturbed." "On that day, they also took out three other sets of remains: one believed to be a crewman killed on the USS Arizona during the Japanese attack and two killed during the Korean War. None of those remains has been identified yet." "Hembree was identified using dental records and by comparing his height and race to the remains, said Ginger Couden, a spokeswoman for the lab." "Emory, an 80-year-old Kahala resident and historian for the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association since 1966, was ecstatic. "You better believe it," he said yesterday. "I don't know of any World War II casualty from Pearl Harbor that has been identified." He started working on this around 1990 when he met Hembree's sister, Helen Braidwood, a beautician from Tacoma, Wash." "On the day of the attack, Thomas Hembree had only been at Pearl Harbor for seven days. He was already homesick for Kennewick, Wash. He wrote his mother about the beauty of Hawai'i and his hunger for action. For five months, Elizabeth Hembree thought her son was still alive." "Tommy, as he was called, was the youngest of her five children. He had blue eyes and a cheeky smile. He was just 17 when he joined the Navy in August 1941, following his two older brothers into service." "Elizabeth received his homesick letter weeks after the Dec. 7 attack. She assumed he was safe. Then a Navy letter arrived April 15, 1942. Her son was a casualty of the attack. Elizabeth wrote back, begging for more information. The response was horrific. All the Curtiss crewmen were accounted for except two. Their bodies were burned beyond recognition. Her son was one of them. The family got a second shock in 1949. The Navy wanted to know if the Hembrees wanted Thomas' body returned, or hould it be buried at a new national cemetery in Punchbowl crater?" "They chose to let him rest in Punchbowl. A few years later, a third surprise: When Braidwood visited the cemetery to mourn her brother she was told he had been buried at sea. She accepted that until 1989 when she asked again." "Although the answer was still the same, a cemetery worker called Emory to see what he knew about Hembree. And so the quest began. Emory had compiled a catalog of Pearl Harbor dead at Punchbowl; including the 252 graves marked "Unknown." He had walked the 18,093 World War II headstones, jotting down each name. After checking military casualty records against cemetery, he knew there were only two sailors missing from the Curtiss: Hembree and Wilson Albert Rice, a 19-year-old seaman first class." "He prodded lab officials for five years with his research and was there in January to watch them bring the remains to the surface. It was not a moment he could share with Braidwood, however. She passed away in 1999, passing her search for answers to her niece, Beth LaRosa of Seattle. "I'm extremely excited," LaRosa said yesterday. "There's a lot of emotion." She said the family would have to discuss what to do next, but it would be nice to re-bury Hembree in Punchbowl. "We would prefer that," she said." ############# The National Alliance Of Families Thirteenth Annual Forum is scheduled for June 20th - 22nd, 2002. Our forum is conducted to coincide with the Governments annual POW/MIA Family Briefings. We urge all family members to attend this years government briefings, for Vietnam family members. Remember the government will provide free airfare to two family members to attend the briefings. There is no charge or registration fee to attend the government briefings. Remember, the Alliance is an all volunteer organization. Our meetings are open to all, without charge. At this time of year, we actively seek contributions to finance our forum. If you wish to contribute, donations may be mailed to: National Alliance Of Families P.O. Box 40327 Bellevue, Wa. 98015. Remember all contributions are tax deductible. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! Write to same address to be off lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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