Operation Just Cause ...for as long as it takes
POW/MIA - Last Month in Review by Marilyn Grote
January 2001
January 5, 2001- The National Alliance of Families mourns the passing of Bill Gardner. Bill passed, after a short illness, on Saturday, December 16th, at his parents home. In his job, at the National Archives, Bill worked tirelessly to declassify POW/MIA related material. A fixture at both Alliance and League meetings, Bill's efforts on behalf of our POW/MIA's will long be remembered. Our POW/MIA's, their families and the activists who push for declassification, have lost a very good friend.
January 10, 2001 - In an unusual move, the Navy has changed the status of a Gulf War pilot from killed in action to missing in action. Now the State Department is demanding more information on the pilot's crash from the Iraqi government. In an unusual move, the Navy has changed the status of a pilot shot down in an F-18 fighter on the opening night of the 1991 Gulf War, from KIA to MIA. Tonight a Defense Department official told ABCNEWS, "We have reason to think he survived the ejection."
January 12, 2001 - President Clinton said Thursday the United States has new information about a Navy fighter pilot shot down over Iraq during the 1991 Persian Gulf War that indicates he survived the crash "and that he might be alive."
January 13, 2001 - Iraq on Saturday dismissed as a "lie" fresh U.S. claims that a fighter pilot shot down over Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War might still alive.
January 14, 2001 - A U.S. Navy pilot initially presumed to have died in a shootdown over Iraq during the Persian Gulf War in 1991 was seen alive in Iraqi custody afterward, according to unconfirmed reports reaching intelligence officials in recent years. The officials, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity, stressed that they knew of no evidence that Lt. Cmdr. Michael S. Speicher was still alive, although President Clinton said "we're going to do our best to find out if he is alive and, if he is, to get him out."
January 15, 2001 - U.S. intelligence agencies have received unverified reports over several years that an American believed to be Lt. Cmdr. Michael S. Speicher, the Navy pilot initially presumed to have died in a shootdown over Iraq in 1991, was seen alive as a prisoner after the war, according to U.S. officials familiar with details of his case.
January 16, 2001 - James de Deane Yule, a World War II prisoner who operated a hidden radio and arranged music for other captives while the Nazis held them in a huge Saxon castle, has died at age 84.
January 17, 2001 - The Navy's decision to change the status of Gulf War pilot Lt. Cmdr. Michael S. Speicher from killed in action to missing in action was based on intelligence information from several different sources, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.
January 18, 2001 - Pete Peterson, a former U.S. Air Force pilot held prisoner for 61/2 years during the Vietnam War, will continue as America's ambassador to Hanoi under the new Bush administration, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday.
January 19, 2001 - At the January 19th Salute to Veterans inaugural event, Vice President Dick Cheney pledged renewed effort to achieve the fullest possible accounting for America's POW/MIAs. Following several earlier commitments by President George W. Bush, this commitment, though not surprising, is welcome and appreciated. Strong records of support and involvement by several Administration officials and nominees offer the promise of serious, objective policy on POW/MIA over the next few years.
January 27, 1973 - The Day The Lies Began - Today marks the 28th Anniversary of the signing of the Paris Peace Accords ending the Vietnam War. Today also marks the 28th Anniversary of the continuous string of lies foisted upon the families of our POW/MIAs. The government thought the POW/MIA families would go away. The government thought their friends would got away. The government was WRONG!
January 29, 2001 - Statistics provided by the Defense POW/MIA Office Live Sightings: As of November 28, 2000, 1,908 first-hand live sighting reports in Indochina have been received since 1975; 1,879 (98.49%) have been resolved. 1,309 (68.61%) were equated to Americans now accounted for (i.e. returned POWs, missionaries or civilians detained for violating Vietnamese codes); 45 (2.36%) correlated to wartime sightings of military personnel or pre-1975 sightings of civilians still unaccounted for; 525 (27.52%) were determined to be fabrications. 29 (1.52%) unresolved first-hand reports are the focus of current analytical and collection efforts: 26 (1.36%) are reports of Americans sighted in a prisoner situation; 3 (.16%) are non-POW sightings.
January 29,. 2001 - The veterans' solemn procession capped a memorial service Saturday for Cpl. Kenneth K. Kunkle of Mountain Home, who died in a raid on Makin Atoll in the South Pacific in August 1942, nine months after the United States entered World War II. Kunkle's body remained in an unmarked mass grave on the atoll until 1999, when military investigators found an islander who had helped bury the Marines and remembered the grave site. On Saturday, Kunkle's remains were placed in his father's grave at the Mountain Home Cemetery. Kunkle's father, Oscar, died in 1960 without knowing what had happened to his son.
January 31, 2001 - At least 239 of the 866 Korean War "unknowns" buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl were returned with data such as names, dog tags and personal effects, according to a researcher. "The families have a right to know this," said Knox, who lost her father during the Korean War. “ She said when more than 70 sets of unidentified remains were sent to Punchbowl during "Operation Glory" in 1954 -- 15 months after the cease-fire -- "some came back with wallets, rings, photographs and other personal artifacts."
