(Left to right) U.S. Army 1st Lt. Matthew Machacek, from the Texas Agribusiness Development Team, Michéle Flournoy, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and U.S. Army Maj. William Davis, also from the Texas ADT, pose for a photo while holding the Texas A&M University flag, Aug. 8, at Forward Operating Base Ghazni.
WASHINGTON – The Defense Department is as committed as ever to bringing home thousands of U.S. service members who remain missing from the Korean War and Cold War conflicts, the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for policy said, Aug. 26.
“This issue has the full and unequivocal support of this secretary and this nation,” Michele Flournoy said at the Korean War/Cold War Annual Government Briefing on the accounting of missing and imprisoned servicemembers held in Arlington, Va. Ensuring resources are available “to have the fullest possible accounting” is a top priority of the department, she said.
As many as 5,400 Americans may still be in North Korea, and another 900 may be in the demilitarized zone that has divided North and South Korea since an armistice in 1953 halted three years of fighting there, Flournoy said. Because there has never been a peace treaty to officially end the war, those areas remain inaccessible to the department’s search and recovery teams, she said.
American search teams were allowed into North Korea under tight control between 1996 and 2005, and recovered the remains of 225 U.S. servicemembers, 81 of whom have been identified, Flournoy said. Rising international tensions with North Korea over its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons and the sinking of a South Korean navy ship this year have ended those operations, the undersecretary said.
Further complicating efforts, Flournoy said, are ongoing reports that “tiny” numbers of veterans may have defected to the north, raising concerns that they are being held as prisoners of war. Department officials have spent years trying to determine if the reports are true, she said.
“We have no evidence that U.S. servicemembers are being held against their will in North Korea,” she said. “But we cannot tell you in many cases the fate of our missing service members.”
Despite the challenges, she said, “We will get through this difficult period and do everything in our power to resume recovery operations and bring our service members home.”
Flournoy called the issue of missing or imprisoned servicemembers “surely the most painful legacy of war,” and said the department is committed to keeping its search and recovery staff fully resourced. Congress, also, has shown its willingness to provide for the recovery of POWs/MIAs by including in the current budget a directive that 200 new staff members be added to the effort each year until 2015.
Meanwhile, the United States has had increasing collaboration with Russia and China to recover missing service members, and currently is evaluating remains found from a plane crash in the China Sea reported by Chinese officials, Flournoy said.
The department usually recovers the remains of between 80 and 85 missing servicemembers each year, she said.
Flournoy told the audience that their work gives hope to the 200,000 military members currently deployed in war zones. POW/MIA work “is not an artifact of the distant past,” she said. “These issues remain urgent, and our commitment to leaving no one behind is as vital and real as it has ever been.”
Search and recovery techniques have vastly improved in recent years, and the department’s teams are the best in the world, Flournoy said. “No one is more dedicated to the mission,” she added.
“Your loved ones gave their lives for this country,” she said. “We honor their sacrifices, and we are committed to their recovery.”
LCpl. Dustin Tunnell, recently attended the funeral of one of his uncles. After the ceremonies an elderly man walked up to LCpl. Dustin Tunnell to thank him for his service to our country and admire his uniform. The elderly man, as it turns out is LCrpl Dustin Tunnell’s great-uncle, began to recall how the uniform was a contributing factor in his decision to join the USMC, but at the time not all Marines were issued a dress uniform since, they were immediately shipped out to war as soon as they completed basic training.
happy he was to see me in my Dress Blues. I decided that a hero like him should not go any longer without our nicest uniform and made up my decision. I called my dad and told him that I would need some help from the family finding out his measurements because I was going to purchase and present a Dress Blue uniform to Bobby. Dad was kind of confused about the idea, as he knows that the uniforms are expensive, but due to never having served, he has no idea the pride we have.
Freedom Hall. They informed me that the events would partake on July 3 this year due to the 4th being on Sunday. They were very excited about my idea, and so we sat down and discussed how this would take place. I was also able to gain all of the information regarding his service, including all of his campaigns, both times he was wounded, and even a picture that was taken on January 20, 1942 while he was in boot camp. He was very happy to receive this information, and got many laughs out of the picture that he has not seen in so many years.
welcomed into the Marine Corps and then walking across the parade deck at Parris Island, at graduation. This is the only thing that I could compare to the way it made me feel having the opportunity to do something like this for such a wonderful man like Robert Webster. I’m honestly not sure which event made me feel better, because becoming a Marine was a great feeling, but it’s hard to compare anything to giving great joy to another individual.
