To all who might be interested:

(Please distribute as you deem appropriate)

When I and others in the Korean/Cold War Family Ass'n of the Missing
learned that John McCain is scheduled to be the Guest Speaker at DoD's
ceremony in honor of our missing men, we were appalled.  We wondered if
Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen intentionally was delivering a slap in the
face to our POW/MIAs and their community of supporters, of if the Secretary
is simply so removed and isolated from the realities of the Full Accountng
issue that he actually does not know that Senator John McCain has become
the arch villain of the cause, admired and respected by NO ONE who truly
cares about our missing men.  Either way it is a disgrace.

Our organization wrote Secretary Cohen a letter making our disgust over
this situation perfectly clear, and urging him to find a more suitable
speaker.  We don't fool ourselves into thinking that the Secretary will
actually heed our concerns, however, because that might embarass his good
friend the Senator, and it would be tantamount to admitting that we the
families and friends of our POW/MIAs actually have a say in the staging of
U.S. political theatre on this matter.

The next question became whether to even attend the ceremony.  A boycott of
John McCain seemed tempting...at first.  After some thought, it struck us
that mere lack of attendance would not be attributed to McCain's presence,
and would probably afford the detractors within DoD an opportunity to color
a "lack of interest" in the POW/MIA issue.  

We can be sure that McCain is envisioning a photo op for himself (as he
looks down the road to another run at the Senate in '98 &/or a run for the
Presidency in 2000).  He will appear to the uninformed as the natural
choice for guest speaker at such an event and he, undoubtedly, will not be
shy about referring to his own experiences as a POW.  He will unabashedly
claim, once again, that "no one cares more than he does" about our missing
men, and he will be depicted as a great leader on this issue.

The irony and hypocrisy of such a scenario is intolerable to those of us
who have lost men that we love.  We have been forced to digress from our
search in order to fight off John McCain's determined efforts to bury the
issue of unrepatriated American POWs.  He has dealt the Full Accounting
effort one debilitating blow after another in furtherance of political,
economic, and bureaucratic agendas more beneficial to him, and it is
hypcrisy in its purest form that he presents himself as dedicated to
accounting for our POW/MIAs.

We have had to endure the "credibility" that he enjoys on this issue for
far too long as it is.  We should not stand by and allow this charade to
continue.  Those who are within reach of the Pentagon should ask the Army
for an invitation to the ceremony this Friday and should attend now more
than ever.  We should take this opportunity to show Senator McCain that we
do not respect him as the national hero that he pretends to be, and that we
do not consider him a leader on this issue.  

It may be too far for many of us to attend, but those who are able would
make a nice addition to the audience.  We should behave like responsible
citizens, not like rude fanatics, because the latter are easily dismissed.
There are constuctive ways to show the Senator from Arizona that he has no
business speaking in honor of our missing men.  We will not applaud for
him.  We can turn our backs on him as he has turned his back on our missing
men.  Any media present will surely be interested in the distinct lack of
whoops and hollers from a group that should make up his most supportive
constituency.  We can and should make sure that this particular photo op is
not productive for John McCain.  We should not allow him to use our
POW/MIAs for his own political advantage on THEIR day!

Sincerely,
Donna Knox, 
daughter of Lt. Harold W. Downes, Jr. USAF; 
POW/MIA North Korea, 1952