by Marilyn Grote April 2, 2001 - After 34 years of waiting, a family will hold a memorial service for missing Air Force pilot whose remains were found in Vietnam. It was a somber yet comforting piece of news for Giffin, who documented the 1997 excavation of the crash site with a film crew. He and his mother, Betty McDermott, have organized a memorial service for April 29 in Santa Barbara, where Giffin lives. Fobair will receive full military honors, including a flyover conducted by Edwards Air Force Base.
April 3, 2001 - A plaque honoring Commander Bucher and the crew of the USS PUEBLO is being is being placed in the National POW museum in Andersonville Georgia. The dedication is scheduled on 25 April 2001 which is on a Wednesday. The program is scheduled to start at 11:30AM and will last about an hour, followed by a reception and buffet. All friends of the USS PUEBLO are invited. "
April 3, 2001 - NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 9, 2001, as National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day. I call upon all the people of the United States to join me in remembering former American prisoners of war who suffered the hardships of enemy captivity. I also call upon Federal, State, and local government officials and private organizations to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
April 6, 2001 - Five Americans, listed as missing in North Vietnam since October 20, 1968, were identified and returned to their families. Jointly recovered on February 14, 1995, the remains were accepted by the NOK as identified on March 28th of this year. DOD has not yet announced the names of these US Army personnel. In addition, the remains of a US Army private, whose name was not previously on the list of unaccounted for Americans, were recovered on April 6th, 1998, and accepted by the families on October 3rd of last year. Finally, Mr. Frank Bytheway, a civilian lost in a US Navy incident on October 2, 1969, has been added to the list of Americans still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. The result of these adjustments and corrections is that the number now missing and unaccounted for in Vietnam is 1,489, with 418 in Laos, 67 in Cambodia and 8 in the territorial waters of the PRC. Over 90% of the 1,982 Americans still missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War were lost in areas under Vietnam's wartime control. The names of all involved will be on this update line as soon as released by the Defense Department, providing the respective families concur.
April 6, 2001 - Statistics provided by the Defense POW/MIA Office
Live Sightings: As of April 6, 2001, 1,910 first-hand live sighting reports in Indochina have been received since 1975; 1,896 (99.27%) have been resolved. 1,318 (69.01%) 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; 533 (27.91%) were determined to be fabrications. 14 (.72%) unresolved first-hand reports are the focus of current analytical and collection efforts: 13 (.68%) are reports of Americans sighted in a prisoner situation; 1 (.05%) are non-POW sightings.The years in which these 14 first hand sightings occurred is listed below:
Year Pre-76 76-80 81-85 86-90 91-92 93-94 95-96 97-01 Total 13 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 14
Accountability: At the end of the Vietnam War, there were 2,585 unaccounted for American prisoners, missing in action or killed in action/body not recovered. As of April 6, 2001, 1,992 Americans are still missing and unaccounted for, over 90% of them in Vietnam or in areas of Laos and Cambodia where Vietnamese forces operated during the war. A breakdown of the years during which the 603 Americans were accounted for follows:
1974-1975 Post war years: 28 1976-1978 US/SRV normalization negotiations: 47 1979-1980 US/SRV talks break down: 1 1981-1984 1st Reagan Administration 23 1985-1988 2nd Reagan Administration 154 1989-1992 Bush Administration 109 1993-1996 1st Clinton Administration 198 1997-2000 2nd Clinton Administration 43
Unilateral Vietnamese government repatriations of remains with scientific evidence of storage have accounted for only 169 of the 436 from Vietnam; all but 3 of the 149 Americans accounted for in Laos have been the result of joint excavations. The breakdown by country of the 603 Americans accounted for from the Vietnam War:
Vietnam 436* Laos 149* China 2 Cambodia 16
*4 remains were recovered from indigenous personnel; 1 from North Vietnam and 3 from Laos; in addition, one person identified was actually recovered in Vietnam before the end of the war.
Note: We are developing information that challenges some of the official facts above.
April 7, 2001 - Seven American searchers for Vietnam War missing were among 16 people killed in a helicopter crash in central Vietnam on Saturday, a U.S. April 7, 2001 - Embassy spokesman quoted Vietnamese authorities as saying." "The embassy has been informed by Vietnamese authorities that a helicopter went down in Quang Binh province this afternoon with seven Americans and nine Vietnamese aboard, including crew," the spokesman said." "Reportedly there were no survivors."
April 7, 2001 - As of March 30th 2001, Robert Jones is no longer the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs and head of the Defense POW/MIA Office. Alan Liotta is the interim head of DPMO until a successor to Jones is names.
April 7, 2001 - US President George W Bush said today that he and First Lady Laura Bush were "deeply saddened" by a helicopter crash in Vietnam that killed 16 people, including seven US military personnel. The aircraft, which went down in the north-central province of Quang Binh, was on "an important mission to find and recover the remains of servicemen missing from the Vietnam War," Bush said in a statement. "Today's loss is a terrible one for our Nation."
April 13, 2001 - In a poignant echo of earlier services for long-lost soldiers, U.S. officials held a repatriation ceremony Friday for seven Americans killed last weekend while searching for the remains of Americans missing since the Vietnam War. ``All these men are heroes. They gave their lives for something they believed in,'' U.S. Ambassador Pete Peterson said. He said the deaths of the seven Americans and nine Vietnamese in a helicopter crash last Saturday would strengthen both countries' commitment to account for people still missing in action from the war.
April 13, 2001 - Month-long joint field operations in Laos, begun in mid-March, concluded on April 9th. A team of 53 Americans joined technical representatives from Laos to investigate up to 29 cases and excavate at least three primary sites. This was the first field activity in Laos employing the larger, 50-person US field team. The Lao agreed to host a seminar in April for officials in their country to hear briefings from US Government specialists; however, the long-awaited session is being postponed due to conflicts on the US side.
April 13, 2001 - 1,981 Americans are still missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War, though 459 were at sea/over water losses: Vietnam - 1,489 (North, 529; South, 960); Laos - 417; Cambodia - 67; Peoples Republic of China territorial waters - 8.
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