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Prioritizing missing American service members |
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August 9, 2017 |
By U.S. Senator Mike Crapo
I recently co-sponsored legislation introduced
by Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) calling on
the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal
agencies to prioritize efforts to identify and
recover unaccounted American military personnel.
Our country cannot waver on efforts to bring
home America’s prisoners of war (POW)s and
missing in action (MIA). We must finish the
search for American families who have waited
decades for answers about their loved ones who
have not returned home after serving our
country.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is
the organization primarily responsible for
coordinating and conducting research and
recovery efforts for POW and MIA soldiers. The
agency reports on service members identified and
returned home.
The return last year of Army Corporal Charles B.
Crofts of Shelley, Idaho, who went missing from
the Korean War in 1950, reduced the DPAA’s
number of remaining POW and MIA veterans from
Idaho to 365, including eight Idahoans missing
from the Vietnam War.
With help and information from the POW*MIA
Awareness Corp. of Pocatello, Idaho, I
highlighted the service of the eight Idahoans
missing from the Vietnam War in a column last
fall. I continue to work with the DPAA on
recovering First Lieutenant Bud Hayes, of Filer,
whose airplane went down near the Philippines
during World War II. We must continue to seek
answers until all Idaho service members are
home.
The DPAA’s complicated efforts to recover
missing American personnel require involvement
across multiple federal agencies, which can
belabor its mission to “provide the fullest
possible accounting for our missing personnel to
their families and the nation.”
The resolution I recently co-sponsored, S.Res.
61, would call upon the Department of Defense,
the DPAA, other agencies and foreign governments
to intensify efforts to identify and account for
missing U.S. personnel. These findings contained
in S.Res. 61 illustrate the need for this
prioritization:
* 83,000 American personnel are still unaccounted-for around the world
from past wars and conflicts;
* Thousands of families and friends have waited decades for the
accounting of their loved ones;
* Families of these brave Americans deserve our nation’s best efforts to
achieve the fullest possible accounting for
their missing loved ones.
This resolution corresponds with other
legislative efforts I have supported to better
enable families to find their loved ones and
bring them home. I am also a co-sponsor of S.
120, the Bring Our Heroes Home Act, that would
provide for an expedited and consolidated
process for declassifying and collecting records
of POW and MIA personnel.
The legislation is meant to address the
obstacles preventing families and caseworkers
from accessing the records needed for recovery
efforts by putting one entity, instead of the
current multitude of agencies, in charge of
prioritizing and facilitating the
declassification of records related to missing
service members.
Idahoans, including members of the POW*MIA
Awareness Rally Corp., have raised awareness
about the continued need to return our missing
service members, holding annual rallies and
other events to keep a spotlight on the service
of those who remain missing and the need for
answers for their families.
Their efforts are greatly valued in helping to
ensure that their return is prioritized. I am
grateful for opportunities I have had to attend
a rally, meet with Idahoans about these efforts
and hear the information they maintain about
Idaho’s missing service members.
As Americans, it is our duty to bring home those
who have sacrificed so much for our country. The
federal government must expedite efforts to
serve the families waiting for answers about
their loved ones. We cannot let this effort
wane. |
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