UPDATE: July 7, 2010

AMERICANS IDENTIFIED: There are now 1,713 Americans listed by DoD as missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. Today, the Defense POW/MIA Office updated its website to indicate that Chief Warrant Officer 2 Donald L. Wann, USA, of Oklahoma, is now accounted for. Listed as KIA/BNR in South Vietnam on June 1, 1971, his remains were recovered on July 29, 2008 and identified March 10, 2010. On June 25th, the DPMO web site carried the fact that LtCol William L. Kieffer, Jr., USAF, of Maryland, is also now accounted for. Listed as MIA in Laos on February 11, 1970, LtCol Kieffer's remains were recovered April 9, 2007 and identified April 26, 2010. The number of Americans returned and identified since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 is now 870, though another 63 US personnel, recovered post-incident and identified before the end of the war, bring the total to 933. Of the 1,713 unreturned veterans, 90% were lost in Vietnam or in areas of Laos and Cambodia under Vietnam's wartime control: Vietnam - 1,311 (VN-478 VS-833); Laos — 336; Cambodia - 59; Peoples Republic of China territorial waters — 7. Over 450 were over water losses.

JPAC COMMANDER LEADS TALKS IN CAMBODIA: MG Stephen Tom, JPAC Commander, led a team of JPAC and DPMO officials for talks with senior leaders of the Royal Cambodian Government. Such talks are held in Hawaii or in Cambodia twice each year, this time in Siem Reap, near the historic site of Angkor Wat and surrounding temples. Results from the talks indicate further cooperation in the coming months, including a proposal by Cambodian officials to hold another Provincial Governors Conference in the coming months. Cooperation between the US and Cambodia on the accounting issue is hampered only by lack of US resources and failure of Vietnamese leaders to authorize release of relevant records concerning US personnel lost in areas of Cambodia where Vietnamese forces were present along their shared border.

ACCOUNTING COOPERATION: A large-scale Joint Field Activity (JFA) in Vietnam, including an under-water excavation along Vietnam's northern coast, began on May 20th and concluded yesterday. Media in Vietnam reported very successful results from the four Recovery Teams (RTs), two Investigation Teams (Its), plus an Underwater Recovery Team (URT). Operations were conducted throughout the country and along the northern coastline, and remains that could be those of three US personnel were repatriated. One RT was continued for two extra weeks in the hope of completing the site, and is now concluding operation. On June 22nd, three JPAC Recovery Teams left Hawaii for Laos where they will excavate three aircraft sites associated with the losses of four individuals. This 115th Joint Field Activity (JFA) is noticeably smaller in scope than the 50-person cap allowed by the Lao Government for each JFA. The three teams will conduct excavations in two Lao provinces. The 114th JFA took place from April 29th until early June, excavating sites in Houaphan and Xiengkhoang Provinces in northern Laos, and one Phase Two Investigation Team (P2T) surveyed sites in the Savannakhet, Xekong and Attapeu Provinces in the south.

41ST ANNUAL MEETING SCHEDULED FOR JULY 21-25TH: The registration deadline expires on July 12th, but the deadlines have expired for arranging Service-supported transportation and registering at the Hilton at the special League rate have both expired. Many challenges are on the table for this meeting, especially decisions concerning future direction, approach and structure of the US Government's POW/MIA accounting effort. The League strongly supports remains recoveries for WWII losses and accounting efforts for Korean War and Cold War missing; in fact, we set the stage and prepared the way for those missions. The practical reality is that the number missing from the Vietnam War is much smaller, thankfully, but that means competing priorities can arise. Those with Korean War and WWII-related interests are a much larger potential force to advocate their own objectives, even at the expense of the Vietnam War accounting we have fought so long to achieve.

MESSAGE FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: There are serious problems that are or soon will be adversely impacting field operations. The first concerns the US requirement for safety certification of all helicopters (including Lao and Vietnamese military helicopters) being used to transport personnel and material supplies for conducting field operations. This certification is not a problem for the privately owned helicopters (Lao West Coast in Laos) all of which meet the stringent safety requirements. A US (DoD) waiver was granted for transporting material and supplies, but not for personnel due to safety concerns. If not solved before the end of FY10 (Sept. 30, 2010), field operations could be restricted to sites accessible by road. This is a serious problem in Vietnam, but potentially worse in Laos where the terrain is more difficult, sites are more remote and surface transportation options are limited. There is no similar problem in Cambodia, as the large, government-owned troop-transport helicopters are not used.

Another issue deals with the Lao Government's disappointing decision to limit the ability of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Stony Beach specialist to pursue in-country POW/MIA investigations. After working for over a decade to gain Lao Government approval for permanent assignment in Vientiane of the US Defense Attaché (DATT) and Stony Beach, this decision has already impeded POW/MIA operations. Hopefully, the Lao Government will respond positively and soon to appeals from the DATT, US Ambassador to Laos Ravic Huso, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs Robert Newberry, JPAC and the League to reach agreement on this latest challenge.

As previously cautioned, there is a mandate in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for DoD to develop the capability to achieve IDs on 200 remains per year by 2015. The bill that passed is authorized, but not yet funded, and there is ongoing debate within the US Government about direction and approach. The League's position is that there is inherent danger in allowing too much control by any one organization or agency. It is critical to ensure a process of checks and balances to prevent excessive control and manipulation.

The number of teams deployed to Laos on June 22nd (three) is two teams short of the allowed number due to deployments elsewhere and lack of an adequate number of forensic anthropologists to be deployed to the field AND working in the lab to achieve the number of identifications outlined by Congress in the NDAA. While JPAC's CIL reportedly has all designated billets filled or a designated hire incoming, the total number is insufficient to support worldwide requirements now being actively scheduled and executed by JPAC. That leaves too few forensic anthropologists to conduct full-scale Vietnam War-related field operations, much less respond to Hanoi's offer to expand the pace and scope of such activities in their country. The 'competition' for assets and resources to be devoted to each war now listed as a priority will intensify and could grow much worse, leaving the Vietnam War accounting effort under-resourced, despite the decades of effort by the League to build the entire accounting process.

If appropriations are not forthcoming to enable the authorized expansion, there will be a push to decrease Vietnam War accounting operations to devote personnel and resources to WWII remains recoveries that predictably would bring in larger numbers of remains for identification. This would completely ignore Vietnam's proposal, first made to the League in March 2009, to expand the pace and scope of field operations, a proposal that could expedite results IF the US responds and IF the Vietnamese expand unilateral actions to locate and provide archival records and remains previously recovered, but not yet repatriated. Those are two huge 'IFs' that warrant very close scrutiny.

Check the League Website:

http://www.powmialeague.org/
http://www.powmialeague.com/
http://www.pow-miafamilies.org/

Ann Mills-Griffiths
Executive Director
National League of POW/MIA Families
5673 Columbia Pike, Suite 100
Falls Church, VA 22041
703-465-7432
http://www.pow-miafamilies.org/