Washington Post - United States
By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 29, 2009; Page C05
In a chilly Rockville conference room yesterday, wives, daughters and a twin brother told stories of loved ones who went off to Vietnam, Korea and Normandy and may yet come home.
The U.S. Defense Department's POW/Missing Personnel Office briefed 150 relatives on its effort to identify and return the remains of U.S. service members missing in action. The office is part of a team that identifies the remains of about 100 service members each year, thinning the list of more than 80,000 missing from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War through such methods as modern DNA analysis and old-fashioned dental comparison. Sixty-two missions are planned this year -- to jungles, forests and mountaintops where newly discovered crash sites and burial plots are reported.
Microphones were passed around in a remembrance ceremony that filled the room with portions of heroic tales: He was about three to four days into battle. . . . They were out on a night mission. . . . His plane was shot down over the North Sea. . . . It took me 47 years to find the person who was with him when he died.
Families came to hear about efforts to recover their loved ones, to ask questions and to contribute DNA samples. A laboratory worker took a swab from the mouth of Jacqueline Stark of Chevy Chase, whose father, Army Maj. Marshall Wolcott Stark, is thought to have died in North Korea in November 1950.
Stark fought in the Battle of Kunu-ri, his 2nd Infantry Division badly outnumbered by the Chinese. The division took heavy losses as it withdrew through territory now known as the Gauntlet. Stark was reported missing Nov. 30. There was no firsthand account of his death.
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Jacqueline was 3 when her father went to war. She has a picture of him posing as a Korean peasant, an older shot of him beside the military glider he flew to Normandy on D-Day and a memory of bobbing in the air above him, playing airplane in the family home.
She said she attended the briefing because she was "curious about the whole process."
A public affairs officer told her, "I don't want to be dramatic here: We may have his remains."
Remains of more than 1,000 Americans killed in Korea are in hand and not identified.
The Missing Personnel Office has traveled the country since 1995, holding similar meetings and reaching more than 14,000 relatives of missing service members. Spokesman Larry Greer said the Defense Department effort involves about 600 people and an annual budget of about $105 million.
Recovering the remains of Army Cpl. Richard Warren Krepps has been a long endeavor for his twin brother, Vincent Krepps of Towson, Md. They enlisted with friends from Lynnwood, Penn., and went into battle in Korea with the same infantry division as Stark.
Richard Krepps was captured by the Chinese. His group of POWs was marched from village to village and housed at a prison camp on the banks of the Yalu River. There, witnesses said, Krepps died in 1951.
At one point, Vincent saw his brother in an enemy propaganda photo published in a Pennsylvania newspaper. He awaited proof of his death until 1998, when he received a letter from a man who was with Richard at the end.
That year, Vincent Krepps returned to the place where his brother was captured. Neither he nor the U.S. military has been allowed into the prison camp where Richard died. Vincent has written a book, "One Came Home," recounting his efforts and the military's to identify missing service members.
"Every little bit pushes me toward the hope that maybe one day he will be recovered," he said.
Showing posts with label DPMO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DPMO. Show all posts
29 March 2009
Families Gather In Pursuit Of Loved Ones Lost
Baltimore Sun - United States
Defense Dept. holds session on finding MIAs
By Mary Gail Hare
March 29, 2009
Calvin and Kenneth Bayne, 81-year-old twins, can easily recall boxing lessons and camping trips with their big brother Robert. Also etched into their boyhood memories is the day in 1945 that a telegram arrived, telling them that Pfc. Robert Bayne, then 26, was missing in action near Mannheim, Germany. His remains were never recovered.
"We have his Purple Heart, the telegram and his letters," said Calvin Bayne. "But we still want to bring him home."
On Saturday, the 64th anniversary of the date they lost Robert, the Baynes joined 80 families gathered at a conference in Bethesda to learn what the military can do to return their loved ones. The event, organized by the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, included spouses, siblings and children of MIAs, like the Baynes of Dundalk.
"When someone goes missing, it changes the family's life immediately and forever," said Linda Watkins-Green of Germantown, the daughter of Air Force Capt. Richard E. Watkins Jr. In 1955, when she was 2, her father was shot down during a Cold War reconnaissance flight off the far eastern reaches of Russia. It would be nearly 50 years before Russia opened its archives to the U.S. and clues to what happened to his plane were found.
The conference gave her an opportunity "to do something for my father and to give my 83-year-old mother some closure," she said.
During the daylong event, families heard how the agency, known as the DPMO, has been involved since 1995 in a worldwide effort to locate and identify remains.
"We owe it to these families," said Charles A. Ray, a former ambassador to Cambodia and a Vietnam veteran, who leads the effort for the Department of Defense. "We have to do everything possible to find, return and identify the remains - or to explain to the family why we are unable to do that, so that they have some sense of what happened."
The agency, relying heavily on recent technology - particularly DNA science - as well as oral histories, military records, and personal effects, identified 80 Americans last year, three of them from World War I.
"Don't walk out without giving us DNA," James J. Canik, deputy director of the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, asked the families. "You might hold the key that is sacred to our success."
The Bayne brothers, also veterans, submitted DNA samples last year and are poring over information provided by the agency. They scheduled a private briefing Saturday.
"We try not to build false hope, but even when we have exhausted all resources, we never close the case," said Larry Greer, DPMO spokesman.
Families play a critical role in the success of the effort, organizers said. The remains of a Navy pilot shot down in Vietnam were ultimately identified when his widow found an envelope with the curls from his first haircut.
In another case, a 1950s letter from a missing Korean War soldier's mother described a gap between his front teeth. It stayed in a file until, decades later, it provided the last clue to the identity of a soldier, whose shallow grave was located in North Korea.
The event also gave families the chance to share glimpses into the lives lost.
All Charleye Dyer knows of her father was gleaned from his letters to her mother, photographs and memorabilia. Lt. Charles G. Dyer, a Navy pilot, died in 1943 during a battle near the Solomon Islands, three months before his only child was born. She came to the conference "still looking for answers," she said.
"Nothing of him was ever recovered, but still there is this hope that there is something of him to bring home," said Dyer, of Dickeyville. "This is all about keeping the candle burning and doing something to honor my dad."
Nita Lumpkin came from Stanardsville, Va., with a map of Vietnam to show where her brother, Capt. Hugh Byrd, disappeared while flying reconnaissance in 1969.
"They have excavated the crash site twice without finding human remains," Lumpkin said. "I know these people have done all they can, and I come here feeling blessed to be with others. We are all experiencing All Saints Day today."
Defense Dept. holds session on finding MIAs
By Mary Gail Hare
March 29, 2009
Calvin and Kenneth Bayne, 81-year-old twins, can easily recall boxing lessons and camping trips with their big brother Robert. Also etched into their boyhood memories is the day in 1945 that a telegram arrived, telling them that Pfc. Robert Bayne, then 26, was missing in action near Mannheim, Germany. His remains were never recovered.
"We have his Purple Heart, the telegram and his letters," said Calvin Bayne. "But we still want to bring him home."
On Saturday, the 64th anniversary of the date they lost Robert, the Baynes joined 80 families gathered at a conference in Bethesda to learn what the military can do to return their loved ones. The event, organized by the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, included spouses, siblings and children of MIAs, like the Baynes of Dundalk.
"When someone goes missing, it changes the family's life immediately and forever," said Linda Watkins-Green of Germantown, the daughter of Air Force Capt. Richard E. Watkins Jr. In 1955, when she was 2, her father was shot down during a Cold War reconnaissance flight off the far eastern reaches of Russia. It would be nearly 50 years before Russia opened its archives to the U.S. and clues to what happened to his plane were found.
The conference gave her an opportunity "to do something for my father and to give my 83-year-old mother some closure," she said.
During the daylong event, families heard how the agency, known as the DPMO, has been involved since 1995 in a worldwide effort to locate and identify remains.
"We owe it to these families," said Charles A. Ray, a former ambassador to Cambodia and a Vietnam veteran, who leads the effort for the Department of Defense. "We have to do everything possible to find, return and identify the remains - or to explain to the family why we are unable to do that, so that they have some sense of what happened."
The agency, relying heavily on recent technology - particularly DNA science - as well as oral histories, military records, and personal effects, identified 80 Americans last year, three of them from World War I.
"Don't walk out without giving us DNA," James J. Canik, deputy director of the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, asked the families. "You might hold the key that is sacred to our success."
The Bayne brothers, also veterans, submitted DNA samples last year and are poring over information provided by the agency. They scheduled a private briefing Saturday.
"We try not to build false hope, but even when we have exhausted all resources, we never close the case," said Larry Greer, DPMO spokesman.
Families play a critical role in the success of the effort, organizers said. The remains of a Navy pilot shot down in Vietnam were ultimately identified when his widow found an envelope with the curls from his first haircut.
In another case, a 1950s letter from a missing Korean War soldier's mother described a gap between his front teeth. It stayed in a file until, decades later, it provided the last clue to the identity of a soldier, whose shallow grave was located in North Korea.
The event also gave families the chance to share glimpses into the lives lost.
All Charleye Dyer knows of her father was gleaned from his letters to her mother, photographs and memorabilia. Lt. Charles G. Dyer, a Navy pilot, died in 1943 during a battle near the Solomon Islands, three months before his only child was born. She came to the conference "still looking for answers," she said.
"Nothing of him was ever recovered, but still there is this hope that there is something of him to bring home," said Dyer, of Dickeyville. "This is all about keeping the candle burning and doing something to honor my dad."
Nita Lumpkin came from Stanardsville, Va., with a map of Vietnam to show where her brother, Capt. Hugh Byrd, disappeared while flying reconnaissance in 1969.
"They have excavated the crash site twice without finding human remains," Lumpkin said. "I know these people have done all they can, and I come here feeling blessed to be with others. We are all experiencing All Saints Day today."
28 March 2009
MIA Families Keep Searching
MyFox Washington DC - Washington, DC, USA
Last Edited: Saturday, 28 Mar 2009, 9:53 PM EDT
Created On: Saturday, 28 Mar 2009, 9:32 PM EDT
ROCKVILLE,Md. - Janice Stoms drove from Phoenixville, PA to Rockville, MD, Saturday, in an effort to find the father she lost in 1958. U.S. Army Captain Wayne Pitcher's plane went down at sea near Taiwan during the Cold War. Nobody knows whether it was mechanical trouble or an attack by Chinese pilots. Neither the aircraft nor the bodies of those aboard has ever been found.
Mrs. Stoms, who was eleven years old when her father disappeared, wants answers and wants the U.S. government to keep trying. "It would certainly help me," she sobbed, "To know what happened to my father so long ago."
Janice Stoms gave DNA samples from her mouth and from old envelopes possibly licked by her father to technicians who work for the Department of Defense's POW/MIA Office.
Should the aircraft and skeletal remains ever be found, the DNA evidence might confirm the identity of the person.
Mrs. Stoms was not alone on Saturday. About 150 family members gathered at a hotel in Rockville to hear a Defense Department briefing on worldwide efforts to gather and identify remains.
Although recovery operations have been shut down for several years in North Korea, they continue on the southern part of the peninsula. "We find two or three remains [in South Korea] annually," according to Ambassador Charles A. Ray, the current head of the DOD Missing Personnel Office.
Ambassador Ray says efforts continue to locate and identify remains from the estimated 1,700 military missing from the Vietnam War, the 8,000 MIA's from the Korean conflict, and the more than 70,000 American service personnel who were never accounted for at the end of World War II.
Last Edited: Saturday, 28 Mar 2009, 9:53 PM EDT
Created On: Saturday, 28 Mar 2009, 9:32 PM EDT
ROCKVILLE,Md. - Janice Stoms drove from Phoenixville, PA to Rockville, MD, Saturday, in an effort to find the father she lost in 1958. U.S. Army Captain Wayne Pitcher's plane went down at sea near Taiwan during the Cold War. Nobody knows whether it was mechanical trouble or an attack by Chinese pilots. Neither the aircraft nor the bodies of those aboard has ever been found.
Mrs. Stoms, who was eleven years old when her father disappeared, wants answers and wants the U.S. government to keep trying. "It would certainly help me," she sobbed, "To know what happened to my father so long ago."
Janice Stoms gave DNA samples from her mouth and from old envelopes possibly licked by her father to technicians who work for the Department of Defense's POW/MIA Office.
Should the aircraft and skeletal remains ever be found, the DNA evidence might confirm the identity of the person.
Mrs. Stoms was not alone on Saturday. About 150 family members gathered at a hotel in Rockville to hear a Defense Department briefing on worldwide efforts to gather and identify remains.
Although recovery operations have been shut down for several years in North Korea, they continue on the southern part of the peninsula. "We find two or three remains [in South Korea] annually," according to Ambassador Charles A. Ray, the current head of the DOD Missing Personnel Office.
Ambassador Ray says efforts continue to locate and identify remains from the estimated 1,700 military missing from the Vietnam War, the 8,000 MIA's from the Korean conflict, and the more than 70,000 American service personnel who were never accounted for at the end of World War II.
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