Sept. 18, 2009 is National POW/MIA Recognition Day

POW/MIA Day honors heroes

The flag of the National League of Families of American Prisoners of War and Missing in Southeast Asia will be flown over the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the departments of State, Defense, and Veterans Affairs, the Selective Service System Headquarters, the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, and national cemeteries across our country.

This black and white banner, symbolizing America’s missing, is a stark and powerful reminder to people around the world that our nation will keep faith with those who have served and sacrificed, that we will not rest until we receive the fullest possible accounting of every American missing in service to our country.

Sept. 18, 2009 is National POW/MIA Recognition Day. I ask all citizens to join me in honoring former American prisoners of war and those whose fate is still undetermined. I also encourage you to remember with special sympathy and concern the courageous families who maintain their steadfast vigil and who persevere in their search for answers and for the peace that comes only with certainty................Read The Rest Here

Please join us for this solemn, poignant and important event. We must let every nation know that we will “never forget!”

A powerful resource for additional information regarding this important issue may be found at the Department of Defense Web site: Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personal

Decades After the Wars

JPAC team on mission to recover remains of U.S. servicemembers missing from WWII

Not long after lunch, they laid themselves to rest in a soft green pasture, this 10-person team that traveled from the far side of the globe to probe for the remains of a man missing for more than six decades.

“We’re not here for ourselves,” Army Sgt. 1st Class Ron Baker says shortly before the pastoral pause. “We’re here for the families of the veterans of past conflicts who are missing in action.”

Baker, a veteran of three combat tours, isn’t one to mince words. While Baker values what he and the others are doing in this cow pasture in western Germany, his soul seems to be elsewhere, Iraq and Afghanistan in particular. You can sense it in his mud-speckled face, and though reluctant to admit as much at first, Baker eventually does.

“They know where my heart is,” he says. “It’s over there.”

“Those piles of dirt over there,” Sprague says, pointing to a few nearby mounds, “it’s all stuff we have sifted through, and we only found a few bits and pieces (of evidence).”

At this stage, JPAC officials usually don’t discuss if they have unearthed any human remains. That comes later, back in Hawaii, where potential remains are tested, analyzed and reviewed by other anthropologists. It’s an exhaustive process that entails layers of scrutiny and a lot of lab work, including DNA testing.

Sprague’s team has found a number of items that seem to confirm a plane crash. The pieces range from shards of the cockpit canopy glass and bits of a parachute to part of a fuel pump and the pilot’s leather headgear.

“We were [sweeping] with metal detectors and digging up all the metal hits,” Sprague says. “One of them was the snap on the helmet.”............Rest Found Here

Not just soldiers, who fight in War, turn up missing, most forever, but also many residents where Wars are fought!

Spiritualists to help find Vietnam's MIAs

Yesterday, 3-1-08, while surfing I had the BBC TV on a video player, BBC World came on with a report about the search for Vietnamesse MIA's, still going on after all these years after the American Invasion of that country.

It was a really interesting mini doc. A search of the site doesn't bring it up, apparently soon we may be able to view these reports, site says something about a beta program being developed for archived shows and reports.

But I did find this report from 2000 on the same subject matter:

The government in Vietnam has turned to spiritual advisers to help find the remains of Vietnamese people killed during the War which ended twenty-five years ago.

The Chief of the Scientific Anticipation Unit, in the Research Centre for the Hidden Abilities of Vietnamese People, said the organisation had been asked to take part in the search.

The official Nguyen Phuc Giac Hai said three experts were searching for people missing-in-action, known as MIAs, and they were capable of finding up to twenty sets of remains each day.

Correspondents say Vietnam has three-hundred-thousand MIAs, and many people believe in the ability of the spiritualists to provide detailed maps of the location of the remains of their loved-ones. The return of American MIAs has also been a major issue in improving bilateral relations.

The report yesterday, a mini doc, was more indepth and aired for about a half hour

The Remnants of War, Especially Wars of Choice!!