American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2005 – The families of three U.S. servicemen missing in action from the Vietnam and Korean conflicts will lay their loved ones' remains to rest in early July.

The Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office reported finding and identifying the servicemen in separate announcements in recent days.

Two of them, Air Force Lt. Col. Darel D. Leetun of Hettinger, N.D., and Air Force Capt. David J. Phillips Jr. of Miami Beach, Fla., served in Vietnam. The third, Army Cpl. John O. Strom of Fergus Falls, Minn., fought in Korea.

Leetun was lost when his F-105D Thunderchief fighter jet was shot down over North Vietnam on Sept. 17, 1966. At the time, Leetun was leading a mission over Lang Son province. No emergency signals were received from the aircraft, and other pilots on the mission observed no parachute.

The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command conducted three separate investigations of the crash site between 1991 and 1995, and two more in 1999 and 2004, by a Vietnam team and a JPAC team, respectively. While human remains were recovered during one of the earlier investigations, JPAC scientists and Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory specialists only recently identified them using mitochondria DNA.

Leetun's remains are being returned to his family. He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on July 8 with full military honors.

Philips, another pilot whose aircraft was downed by enemy fire, was attacking enemy targets over Kien Gian province in South Vietnam when his F-5 Freedom Fighter jet was hit. He was unable to eject, and heavy enemy fire at the time prevented a search on the ground.

Four investigations into Phillips' disappearance were conducted by joint U.S.-Vietnamese teams from 1993-2000, and 10 villagers were interviewed over the seven-year period. Two subsequent investigations by JPAC teams in 2003 and 2004 uncovered human remains, various artifacts, and personal effects. Laboratory analysis of the remains by JPAC forensic scientists, including comparisons of mitochondrial DNA, led to the positive identification. His remains have been returned to his family for burial July 3 in Savannah, Ga.

Strom was reported missing in action after his unit, the 1st Battalion, 8th Calvary Regiment, came under attack by Chinese communist forces near Unsan, North Korea, in a battle that lasted several days. In addition to Strom, more than 380 soldiers of 8th Calvary were unaccounted for.

Acting on information from a villager who had reportedly buried the remains of a U.S. serviceman found in another location, a team of U.S. and North Korean specialists excavated both sites in July and August 2002. They discovered human remains as well as some nonbiological material. They also were given an identification tag belonging to Strom that was found by the villager. Laboratory analysis, including comparisons of mitochrondrial DNA, led to the positive identification of Strom.

Strom will be buried in Fergus Falls, Minn., on July 6.

(Note: See my previous post on Cpl. Strom here)

About 8,100 personnel from the conflict in Korea and more than 1,800 from the Vietnam War remain unaccounted for. But that does not mean the U.S. military is not looking. The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, located at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, conducts 10 on-the-ground missions in Southeast Asia every year - four in Vietnam, five in Laos and one in Cambodia.

The command's investigations, team members say, are painstaking processes to recover and identify human remains and artifacts of the war, and its Central Identification Laboratory, the largest forensic anthropology lab in the world.

At a June 17 gathering of the families of servicemen still missing in Southeast Asia, Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. government is dedicated to the fullest possible accounting of the fallen and missing.

"This is a quest that we must pursue relentlessly, wherever it takes us, for as long as it takes us, until all are accounted for," he said.

Related Sites:DoD POW/Missing Personnel Office Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command

Related Article:General Promises Families DoD Will Continue Searching for MIAs

Army expects rosy recruiting numbers for June
Gen. Myers: 'There's a bit of good news'
06/29/05 06:16 PM, EDT
The Army is expected to exceed its active-duty recruiting goal in June after significant shortfalls in the last four months, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.
FULL STORY

Veterans programs to get more money for health care

If you do, you might change your mind after reading this article at David's Medienkritik.

Berlin Outrage: Checkpoint Charlie Monument to be Bulldozed

I've been hearing from some of our European friends who've taken a look at the blog lately, which actually made me relax a little - we actually DO have friends over there. But the timing of this is not an accident. It's a blatant shot at us. And it's pretty darned unnerving. Bulldozing a freedom monument. How much of a statmement is THAT?

If I were living in Europe - especially Germany - right now, I would be afraid. Very afraid.

Hat Tip to Greyhawk.

Are we in a Quagmire? Instead of listening to the MSM or people like Gitmo Dick and John Kerry, how about getting it from a more reliable source?

Forwarded email from a Hero in Iraq:

Hi everyone! Sorry I have not written more recently but my new job means I only have one internet computer in the building and it is shared by the rest of the platoon. Our connection speed is really slow too so it makes getting online a pain. My new job is great and I am finally getting to see and take part in the interesting work I missed out on earlier. Collecting human intelligence is interesting and exciting. The soldiers are the cream of the crop and I could not ask for more. Each day I learn something new. Anyway I felt compelled to write you after seeing a news story on CNN. It covered the recent briefing by the Sec Def and senior military commanders to Congress. In the brief several senior congressional leaders stated that they believed that we were in a "quagmire". Let me assure you that this drew a hearty laugh from everyone in the room. They even went on to say that we were losing the war. Last time I checked we had just finished a two week period in which our soldiers had captured the top insurgent in Northern Iraq as well as 3 of his most senior leaders. Insurgents are in a panic and we continue to pick up members of their cells each day. The insurgent leadership has consistently shown that they are more than willing to recruit poor, young, and uneducated men to carry out their dirty work while they reap material and monetary benefits.

The insurgent "leaders" are nothing more than common criminals with absolute zero redeeming qualities. The average Iraqi hates the "Ali Babbas" who kill their women and children. If some of these politicians would spend a week here they would feel the difference in the air. Just as the people gained confidence in the election process in January they now are beginning to gain confidence in their security forces. We still have a ways to go but the American soldier on the ground and the people of Mosul know that things are getting better and progress is being made. Those who would have the United States pull out are willing to simply abandon a people fighting for freedom as well as turn their backs on the men and women of the US Military who made the ultimate sacrifice. Please don't think that we are over here with our heads down and kicking the sand. Our troops are confident and always ready to go out and engage the insurgents 24/7. Our resolve has not wavered one bit because we know we are making a difference. Each time a patrol rolls out the wire it brings hope and security with it. The Iraqi people (Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, and Yezedis) want us here.

Please don't believe the negative reporting and know positive things are happening here everyday.

Thanks for listening to me vent and stay safe,
-Dan

Thanks to Lynne, Glen, and Patti

PRESIDENT MEETS TROOPS – President George W. Bush greets soldiers after delivering remarks on the war on terror at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Tuesday, June 28, 2005. White House photo by Eric Draper

1862 - Day 5 of the 7 Days-Battle of Savage's Station
1863 - Lee orders his forces to concentrate near Gettysburg, PA.
1913 - The Second Balkan War begins.
1916 - The first flight of a Boeing aircraft.
1940 - The U.S. passes the Alien Registration Act.
1949 - South Africa begins implementing apartheid with the banning of mixed marriages; U.S. troops withdraw from Korea following WW II.
1952 - The USS Oriskany becomes the first aircraft carrier to sail around Cape Horn (she was decommissioned in 1989, and now is due to be scuttled in May 2006 to form the world's largest artificial reef.
1954 - The Atomic Energy Commission votes against Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer's reinstatement.
1964 - After more than eighty days of Senate filibuster, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed.
1965 - USAF Captain Joseph Henry Engle reaches 85,530 m in the X-15.
1966 - The U.S. bombs fuel storage facilities near North Vietnamese cities.
1967 - Israel re-unifies Jersualem, removing barricades.
1969 - The first Jewish worship service is held at the White House.
1970 - The U.S. concludes a two-month military offensive into Cambodia.
1971 - Soyuz 11 docks with Salyut 1 for 22 days .
1972 - The U.S.S.R. launches Prognoz 2 into Earth orbit.
1982 - The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is extended.
1984 - The U.S.S.R. offers to start talks on banning SDI.
1985 - NASA launches Intelsat VA

Birthdays
1858 - George Washington Goethals, engineer (Panama Canal)
1865 - Shigechiyo Izumi, achieved oldest authenticated age (120 y 237 d) ; William E. Borah lawyer/(Sen-ID)
1934 - Carl Levin (Sen-MI)
1948 - Fred Grandy, actor (Gopher-"Love Boat")/(Rep-Iowa)

Passings
1852 - Henry Clay, Senator, Secretary of State, "The Great Compromiser"
1923 - General J.C. Gomez, Venezuala's first vice president, assassinated
1978 - Bob Crane, actor (Hogan's Heroes), murdered

Reported Missing in Action
1965
Lindsey, Marvin Nelson, USAF (LA); RF101C shot down, no parachute seen

1966
Jones, Murphy N., USAF (LA); F105D shot down, released by DRV February, 1973 - retired from the USAF as a Colonel - alive and well as of 1998

1967
Hardy, William H., US Army ; Released by DRV February, 1973 - alive as of 1996

1968
Owen, Timothy S., US Army (NY); disappeared while conducting a night ambush

1970
Aldern, Donald D., USN (SD); A7A shot down, no parachute seen