Chapter Twenty-Eight

“There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known.” - Luke 12:2

When I completed writing and publishing this book in 2005, I thought my leads for answers on Jim Birchim’s case had come to a stop. It’s 2010 now, and having done historical research for this book, I knew that the issue of POW/MIAs would continue in the wars to come. I, unfortunately, have been proven right as we’ve had several servicemen and women listed as MIA and POW in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some startling events have taken place in the last few years in regard to live POWs. In May of 2005, three Japanese soldiers from WWII were discovered in a remote section of the Philippines. In their 80s and 90s, they had been in hiding, fearful of retribution from Japan.

In June 2005, 170 Hmong walked out of the jungle on the border between Laos and Vietnam. They had been in hiding since the end of the Vietnam War, some 30 years ago. They told of others still in hiding in very remote jungle villages.

North Korea admitted to holding soldiers captured during the Korean War in October 2005. It’s believed by the South Korean Red Cross that the numbers of POWs and abductees could number 1,031.

In November 2006, a South Korean escaped from the north saying that hundreds of Americans from the Korean War were still being held in the north.

In August 2009, our troops in Iraq were told of a gravesite close to where Cpt. Scott Speicher went down in 1991. The bone fragments and teeth have been identified as belonging to Scott. To date, the family is still waiting to hear how long those bones were in the ground. With some accuracy, this can be determined through forensic analysis. The government would like us to believe that Scott died in the crash. This would mean we would have to discount: the testimony of a Bedouin who said he took Scott to Baghdad alive; the satellite photography in 1994 of a distress symbol in the area of Scott’s shoot down; Scott’s initials carved on a prison wall in Baghdad; and a January 2003 Iraq document listing all the POWs they held. Scott’s name is on the list.

The press reported the Korean stories in brief articles on back pages. Scott’s story appeared on the front pages. However, I have not seen follow-up reports on any of these stories, nor have I seen articles that questioned our government as to what they were going to do about getting our LIVE American POWs home from Southeast Asia.

Let Vice-President Dick Chaney have a hunting accident and the press covers it for days. So why isn’t the press livid with the lack of the government’s interest about our men rotting in foreign prisons? It seems to be a golden opportunity for the press to crucify either one or both political parties.

I know why our government doesn’t do anything. A four star general at the National League of Families government briefings in Washington, DC, admitted to me that our government looks at the country where the live sightings take place and if they don’t want to deal with that country, then they do not act on the live sighting reports. At least he was honest.

In December 2004, I was contacted by Dickie Hites at Joint Prisoner/MIA Accountability Command (JPAC). (This book was at the publishing house at the time.) He informed me that a recently released document had come across his desk that appeared to pertain to my husband. The document was the debriefing of a very credible Vietnamese source in Saigon, dated June 1969.

This witness had seen “a U.S. Army lieutenant on 2 April 1969 at the T-5 Liaison Station in Cambodia. The officer had been captured at Kieng in Kontum Province, SVN, by NVA soldiers. He had been wounded in the head when he attempted to flee. Despite his wounds, the prisoner appeared to be in fair condition; he was awake and alert during the observation period.”

The document describes the physical characteristics of a lieutenant, which fit Jim, and says that he was being transported north to the T-9 station. After researching all those men who were listed as POWs and MIAs in that area within six months of the April date, Dickie Hites told me the only lieutenant missing in the area was Jim Birchim. Because the government won’t admit this, they continue to label Jim as MIA. The document is the first to surface that puts Jim alive months after the initial incidence on 15 November 1968.

If that document isn’t amazing enough, in September 2005, I received a document from the National Archives, the result of my requesting information on Jim Birchim. One of the documents they sent me was the debriefing of a returned POW in March 1973 at Clark AFB. It appears that the POW listed every man he came in contact with during his five years in the Vietnamese prison system. Of the forty-one names listed, one of them is James D. Birchim. In addition, Jim is the only one of the forty-one who has not been accounted for.

The debriefed POW is alive today, but I’ve been unable to contact him. Despite numerous phone calls to his house, he never answered the phone. During a trip to Fayetteville, North Carolina, I stopped at his house and spoke with his wife. At first, she was receptive to speaking with me even though I was a complete stranger. When I told her that my husband was an MIA from the Vietnam War and that Jim’s name was listed on the debriefing that her husband gave in 1973, she seemed to become nervous and didn’t make eye contact with me. I told her that I only wanted to know what her husband knew of Jim, and if he didn’t feel comfortable speaking with me, that he could send his message through another member of Special Forces.

Nothing has ever come of this. I’ve even elicited the help of both JPAC and DPMO, and neither seems interested in making contact with this man on my behalf. I can only assume that they don’t want me talking with him.

Since I had two documents that appear to show Jim was a POW, I decided to ask the government to give him this recognition and change his status to POW. I wasn’t asking them to change his date of death, only to move his status from MIA to POW prior to his final KIA/BNR status. In my naiveté, I thought this might not take much effort to do. I thought that changing his status was a logical step in giving Jim the recognition he was due and wouldn’t be so difficult to accomplish.

As many of you know, dealing with the government is a frustrating ordeal and leads to an endless game of waiting, contacting them and waiting some more. By 2008, my patience was wearing thin and my sarcasm with those I was dealing with started to emerge more frequently. I was told by JPAC that it would be DPMO’s responsibility to make the determination. So, back and forth I went between these two entities trying to get one of them to do something.

In November of 2008, a regional update meeting was to be held in San Diego, which would include all the agencies involved in the POW/MIA issue. The keynote speaker was to be Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Ray, so I decided I had nothing to lose at this point and wrote him a letter asking for his help in this matter. I attached the letter to a copy of my book and gave it to his attaché as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Ray was unable to make the meeting at the last minute.

Why this happens is beyond me, but if information about Jim is going to come to me, it seems to always come just before Christmas. This year was no exception. I got a letter from Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Ray saying, “Unfortunately, your request for a change of status for Captain Bircim falls outside our purview. The Secretary of the Army has the responsibility for status change decisions and the U.S. Army Human Resources Command is the primary liaison for processing your request. I have forwarded your request to them. . .

“From reading excerpts of your book, I better appreciate the trails and tribulations you have experienced as the wife of a missing serviceman.”

I had to chuckle at what I first perceived to be a typo in the word “trails,” thinking that what he really meant was trials. After pondering this for awhile, I’m hopeful that he was referring to the many trails I have followed that led to a dead end.

Two weeks into 2009, I received a call from a Cpt. Scott from the Human Resources Department in Army Casualty, regarding Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Ray’s directive. This puzzled me as I thought Human Resources in any company dealt with “live” employees. She said, “Our legal expert will hear the case and make a procedural recommendation on whether a board is warranted or not.” I explained Jim’s unusual situation, told her I would send her my book, which would give her and the legal expert a good overview of Jim’s case, and tried to make my case for being an expert witness stating that even Army Casualty didn’t have all the information I held. She wasn’t sure what the procedure would be and said she’d get back to me when she did.

The next call I received from Cpt. Scott was to put me through to her boss, Harold Campbell, a civilian, who had been working in that office for many years. He said that with these two documents, it looked pretty straight forwarded to him that a paper shuffle could accomplish a status change without having to convene a board. WOW! That was great news! He said his office would be in touch with me every week to give me an update and if a board did need to get involved, I could be present. He also assured me that Jim would be represented by legal council.

What sounded like a quick response to my request became another long drawn-out affair. I waited eagerly to hear from them, only to have to initiate a call every two to three weeks.

On February 4, 2009, an e-mail from Cpt. Scott stated that JAG was involved in reviewing the case and was requesting additional evidence from DPMO. When I saw this, I knew classified documents must be involved. A short e-mail to Cpt. Scott confirmed this. For years, the government has said they’ve declassified everything and virtually accused family members of being paranoid when we didn’t believe them. Now, all of a sudden, there are classified documents surrounding Jim Birchim’s case.

As the weeks rolled by, I had to think of reasons to contact Cpt. Scott so it wouldn’t look like I was being a pest. Then it happened! I called Cpt. Scott’s number only to discover that it was “no longer in service.” Yet another MIA!

My mind reeled with the possibility that this young lady who took a real interest in Jim’s case may have been moved due to getting too curious. My only recourse was to go to Mrs. Floyd, who has been my contact in Army Casualty for years, and ask her what happened. All she would tell me was that Cpt. Scott had been transferred.

June, July and August rolled by without any news about a status change. Once again, I needed to find another way of attacking this. The time had come to go to a Congressman who had tried to help me long ago with incorrect information on my military ID card. With papers in hand, I made an appointment to visit the office of Duncan Hunter to see if he could do anything. A Congressional Request was sent to Army Casualty regarding these two documents and a status change.

Waiting, waiting, waiting. . .

In October, I received a call from Mrs. Floyd in Army Casualty stating that they had received the Congressional Request and DPMO was now going to research these documents.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Your department has been working on this since January. What do you mean DPMO is now going to look into this?” I said.

Mrs. Floyd said that Cpt. Scott never got a “tasker number” assigned to my request, so nothing had ever been done and that they needed to start all over again.

I reminded her that JAG was involved because of classified documents, so research was already being done, and I reminded her that she knew about it. I have a lot of sarcastic things I’d like to say to these people but I will refrain.

November went by and half of December before I got a call from Army Casualty. Harold Campbell apologized for being slow at getting his cover letter with DPMO’s analysis sent to me. He was calling to prepare me for an answer I didn’t want to hear and gave me my options. The letter never arrived.

It’s now January and exactly one year since I first spoke with Mr. Campbell who thought this could be done with a simple “paper shuffle.” He is amazed that I’ve never received his letter and proceeds to e-mail the letter to me with DPMO’s analysis attached. He also puts another hard copy in the mail to me.

I was so shocked at the sloppy work done by the researcher that I responded to Congressman Hunter’s office with copies sent to other officials and The White House. After all, what did I have to lose at this point?

* * *

January 21, 2010

Congressman Duncan Hunter
1429 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0552

Regarding: Cpt. James D. Birchim
Refno 1322
Tasker #2009000727

Dear Congressman Hunter:

This letter is in regard to DPMO’s analysis of the two documents that I believe support a status change for my husband, Cpt. James D. Birchim, from Missing In Action to Prisoner of War. It was with your help that Army Casualty and DPMO finally, after my trying for 3+ years, at least attempted to explain their views on these documents. Please understand that I am not adverse to a difference in opinion, but I do expect there is accurate evidence to support an opposing train of thought. After 42 years of trying to get to the truth, my frustration level is pretty high and as I explain the discrepancies in DPMO’s letter, you’ll see why. Since I’ve been dealing with all the various agencies involved with the POW/MIA issue for the past 42 years, they know that I am going to scrutinize every word from them so one would think that they would do their best to make the communication as accurate as possible. During their research, they never requested any additional information from me. I know that sounds strange but I truly believe that I hold more documents and research on my husband than any one governmental agency at this point. The term “compartmentalization” is very much a part of this issue.

Regarding the “living-sighting report”-- When Dickie Hites at JPAC first brought this document to my attention, he did a 6 month sweep looking for all the men listed as missing in the Polei Kleng area and came up with eleven names of which Sgt MacPhail was not one of them. Was this an oversight on his part? Maybe so. However, Dickie’s analysis of this document tags it to Jim because of the physical description, the rank, the date and the location. The reason the location fit was because he had just interviewed the pilot, reworked the original map, and took into consideration that teams were sent in to try to find Jim after the incident leading us to believe that Jim either was left behind or fell off immediately on extraction, not 45 minutes into the flight. Add the fact that the helicopter pilot was “waved off by someone on the ground” and you have a strong case for being left behind. I wonder if DPMO is aware of this?

The second document, DA form 2371, which came from the National Archives as a result of my doing a FOIA request, is quite curious. DPMO says this list of 40 names belongs to Army men. That’s not entirely accurate. There are 9 pilots/copilots (maybe they were all warrant officers?), a flight surgeon and a civilian. (Statements like this make me question DPMO’s entire analysis.) Why would Jim’s social security number be under Cordine McMurray’s name? I’m shocked that DPMO would even suggest that only 40 Army men were listed as MIA during the war. It seems to me that is exactly what they are implying in their analysis. If this was a list of all MIAs at the end of the war, there would be over 3,000 names on it and not 40. There are two digit numbers after every name. Since neither JPAC nor DPMO have been able to tell me what these refer to it is my opinion that they belong to a numbering system devised by our government for the holding areas and POW camps during the war. My husband’s name has the number 54 after it as does William Reeder, Artice Elliott and Issako Malo. Sgt MacPhal’s name is not on this list so that leads me to believe that the list doesn’t include all those lost in a certain location.

DPMO made the statement that they “researched their photos database, dog tag reports, and additional live-sighting reports. None correlated to Cpt. Birchim.” It was DPMO that sent me a “dog tag report” on Jim in 1988!

In their final assessment statement, they talk about the board’s recommendation in January 1969 to change Jim’s status to KHA. What they don’t say is that a handwritten note overruled the recommendation in 1969 and again in 1970 instructing them to continue carrying my husband in a MIA status! I brought these documents to Bill Dwyer in DPMO some 2+ years ago as DPMO had never bothered to even look at Jim’s file in Army Casualty.

With all of these discrepancies, how can I accept DPMO’s analysis? And, what a travesty it is that the burden of proof lies with me to show that Jim survived the incident rather than the government having to prove that he died. All the rhetoric that is said about not leaving our servicemen behind and always pushing for the truth is left on the shoulders of the family members. This great country has the sophisticated agencies/departments/equipment/technology to connect the dots on these cases and yet it seems that it’s not really “our greatest priority.” The age of “transparency” certainly does not apply to this issue.

Finally, all I can say is that I am disappointed in what I perceive to be sloppy and uncaring research of my husband’s case.

Most sincerely,

Barbara Birchim

Cc: White House
Assistant Secretary of Defense
Chief of Staff U.S. Army
DPMO
Army Casualty

* * *

Over the years, I’ve come to realize it’s virtually impossible to undo the strange workings of our government when it comes to this issue. In 42 years of searching for the truth, I hoped that when I got answers, the government would be willing to correct the “errors made during war time” by investigating the case with fresh eyes and an enthusiastic manner. I do believe there are some people who do want to reveal the truth. Unfortunately, it appears they are bound by the secrets of others from the past.

To complicate my quest even further, there have been some well-meaning people who have come forward to offer their theories on what happened to Jim based on documents and people they have interviewed. They have looked at my information, done their own research and drawn conclusions that are sometimes very hard to comprehend. I do appreciate any help in seeking the truth but some of their ideas are too far out for me to accept as being viable.

For all those who have knowingly given false testament to this issue, their day of reckoning will come.

* * *

“For what you have said in darkness will be said in the light; and what you have whispered in the inner chambers will be preached on the housetops.” Luke 12:3

The Book - 2010

Publicizing this book has not been an easy venture. I soon realized that men I meet at book signings and lectures I’ve given no doubt think a woman couldn’t write something about Vietnam that would be of any substance. And those women I meet no doubt think, “Why would I want to read a book about Vietnam?”

That means I need to let everyone know why the information in Is Anybody Listening? A True Story About POW/MIAs In The Vietnam War is so important.

Since the book was published, I have had numerous speaking engagements, have participated in several military/veteran conventions as a vendor, have given newspaper interviews, and have been interviewed on several radio shows. I’d say that 98% of those whom I talk to, buy the book. I know the key to reaching more people and getting this information to the general public is to peak their curiosity.

I need your help to do this.