The National Alliance of Families Eighth Annual Forum is scheduled for June 19th - 21st, 1997. Once again, we will meet at the Sheraton City Centre Hotel in Washington D.C. Make your reservations now! Call 1-800-526-7495. Rates are $99.00 per night.

Korea - Cold War Families Please Note: as of our last conversation with DPMO, your briefing will be held Friday afternoon, June 20th, at the Sheraton City Centre Hotel. The Alliance will provide the meeting room.

We are looking forward to an exciting line-up of guest speakers. Scheduled speakers include Ret. Col. Tom Mc Kenney, who will speak of his involvement with the Phoneix Program and American POWs. Interviews with Col. Mc Kenney are featured in the recently published book "Spite House." Also speaking is Vietnam POW Frank Anton, author of a new book titled "Why Didn't You Get Me Out." He will discuss his experiences as a POW and his belief that POW's were left behind at the end of the Vietnam War. There will be a briefing on last Decembers trip to the DPRK, by Alliance representatives and much more......

Our first forum will start promptly at 7:00 P.M., Thursday evening, June 19th. Hope to see you all there.

Remember our meetings are open to all, at no charge. In order to make this Forum a reality, funds are needed. Please consider a contribution to The National Alliance of Families. The Alliance is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a charitable organization. All donations are tax deductible. Contributions may be mailed to The National Alliance of Families, P.O. Box 40327, Bellevue Washington 98015-4327.

THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF FAMILIES MOURNS the passing of Ann Curran, mother of POW/MIA Patrick Curran. Mrs. Curran was killed in a traffic accident, May 20th, 1997. To her family we offer our deepest sympathies.

ROLLING THUNDER X -- To Artie Muller and the ladies and gentlemen of Rolling Thunder -- CONGRATULATIONS on a job well done. It was a super weekend capped by the largest run of motorcycles we can remember. Media coverage was extensive, with live feeds from the reflecting pool. Guest speakers included Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, Sammy Davis, and David Dolby, Alliance Chairperson Dolores Alfond, Bill Bell, author Monika Jensen Stevenson ("Spite House,") Col. Tom Mc Kinney, returned POWs Larry Stark and Bobby Garwood. If we left anyone out, we apologize.

It was a wonderful day, despite the rain, and we were honored to be a part of Rolling Thunder X. You guys did a great job!

LEGISLATION NEEDS HELP, NOW! -- H.R. 409 "The Missing Persons Authorities Improvement Act," aka the Missing Service Personnel Act, now has 60 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. This is not enough. We need a strong push. In order to pass a House vote, we need a minimum of 218 co-sponsors. That equals one half of the members of congress.

On the Senate side, well you all know the problems there. We do have another ally on board. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell has introduced the Senate version of H.R. 409. The Senate number is S.755. The bills title is "The Missing Persons Authorities Improvement Act."

As you well know this legislation would restore provisions of the "Missing Service Personnel Act of 1996," gutted by the Mc Cain Amendment.

We are not going to outline all the reasons this legislation is important to us, as family members and advocates for our POW/MIAs. Everyone knows this legislation inside and out. If we are to protect service personnel, past, present and future, we need "The Missing Persons Authorities Improvement Act."

We need cosponsors in the House and Senate. Please call, write or fax your congressman and senators now. Ask that they support HR. 409 in the House and S. 755 in the Senate. We don't have much time. So, please make those calls and send those faxes and letters now!

Send letters to:

Congressman _______________ Senator______________

United States House of Representatives United States Senate

Washington, D.C. 20515 Washington, D.C. 20510

or Call: 1-800-972-3524 or 1-202-224-3121

OUR THANKS TO --- Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell for introducing S 755 the Senate version of "The Missing Persons Authorities Improvement Act." By standing up on behalf of our POW/MIAs, Senator Campbell and his staff have already, according to our sources, begun to feel the wrath of Senator John "Have you hugged a Communist, today" Mc Cain.

To Senator Campbell and his staff we extend our sincere appreciation for your efforts on behalf of America's abandoned servicemen.

REMAINS RETURNED -- The Pentagon announced the remains identification of Air Force Capt. Jeffrey L. Harris. Captain Harris and Capt. Dennis E. Wilkinson were aboard a F-4E shot down over North Vietnam on May 10th, 1972.

The remains of Capt. Wilkinson were unilaterally turned over, by the Vietnamese in August 1978. They were positively identified the following month, according to the Defense POW/MIA Weekly Update. Three joint U.S. - SRV investigations and excavations in 1993, 1995, and 1996 were conducted with remains recovered during the 1996 excavation. Also recovered were personal effects, crew equipment and a blood chit.

Individual remains of Capt. Harris will be returned to his family. Individually unidentifiable commingled remains of both crewmen will also be returned for burial. To the Harris and Wilkinson family, we offer our prayers, support and hope that you now have the answers you truly deserve.

QUESTIONS -- The recovery of remains associated to Capt. Harris, raises several questions in our minds. Captain Wilkinson's remains were returned by the Vietnamese in 1978 and positively identified. Under what circumstances did the Vietnamese come to have Captain Wilkinson's remains? Did he and Capt. Harris die in the crash? Did the Vietnamese recover Capt. Wilkinson's remains from the crash site and return them to the United States? If so, why didn't they recover the remains of Capt. Harris at the same time and return them also? It seems highly unlikely that the Vietnamese would recover one set of remains from a crash site and leave another.

Were both sets of remains recovered and stored with one crewman returned and one held in the warehouse for later "discovery.?" Did one or both of the crewmen survive the incident only to die unacknowledged in a second tier prison camp? Were Capt. Harris remains returned to the excavation site, in 1996, to be "discovered" by JTF-FA investigators?

QUESTIONS --- Even when a family is presented with a good identification, and we don't know that to be true in this case, they are still left with many unanswered questions. Questions that the Vietnamese could easily answer and choose not to. So much for that "superb cooperation" we all hear so much about.

REPRESSIVE SOCIETY... YOU DECIDE -- From Reuters "HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnam announced rules Tuesday preventing a range of state agencies from releasing information on the Internet and requiring diplomats and foreign organizations to seek approval to transmit information online. A government decision reported by official media said legislative, judicial, research organizations and other state bodies would not be allowed to connect with the Internet.

Foreign diplomatic staff, international organizations and foreign news agencies would be required to seek approval from the Foreign and Culture Ministries in order to distribute information via the Internet. Approval would be given in the form of a license, it said.

Vietnam currently forbids access to the Internet, but a state-monitored gateway for public use is expected to be opened later this year offering the Communist country access to the information superhighway for the first time. At present the only access is through limited e-mail services run by state agencies.

Government officials say they are concerned about the possible inflow of material deemed subversive or harmful.

DON'T LOOK FOR --- Our new ambassador to Vietnam, Pete Peterson, to be surfing the net. The "superbly cooperative" Vietnamese won't allow it!"

MC NAMARA GOES TO VIETNAM --- From Reuters -- HANOI, Vietnam (Reuter) - America's Vietnam War era Defense Secretary, Robert Mc Namara, and Vietnamese officials are due to meet next month in Hanoi to examine possible lessons from the conflict, a foreign ministry official said on Monday. Mc Namara, the most senior member of a non-government U.S. delegation comprising some 54 researchers and historians, will attend a "Missed Opportunities"conference between June 19 and 22 with Vietnamese government ministers and academics.....

....Robert Mc Namara resigned as U.S. Defense Secretary in 1968 after overseeing the U.S. military buildup in Indochina in a conflict which became known as Mc Namara's War. In memoirs published in 1995 he sparked debate in the United States by detailing wrong decisions under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations which he said had led Washington to stumbling into an unwinnable war....

....In terms of human lives the cost was 58,000 American dead and around four million Vietnamese either killed or injured...."

"Missed Opportunities" Mc Namara doesn't have to go to Vietnam to learn about his "Missed Opportunities." We can tell him. He "Missed the Opportunity" to save 45,000 + lives if he had spoken out in 1967. He "Missed the Opportunity" of saving hundreds of thousands from the devastating effects of Agent Orange, PTSD, and crippling wounds. "Lessons Learned" 99.9% of those inside the beltway would sacrifice a life to insure a profit.

One of the speakers at Rolling Thunder said of Robert Mc Namara "When he dies, his entry to heaven will be blocked by Gold Star Mothers."

The next installment of the August 1985 memo evaluating the status of Vietnam losses follows:

D. THERE ARE 535 TOTAL INCIDENTS IN SOUTH VIETNAM.

(1) TWENTY-ONE INVOLVE PERSONNEL ON THE PRG DIED IN CAPTIVITY LIST. REFNOS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

0021 0024 0037 0047 0048 0049 0050 0052 0086 0099
0106 0180 0236 0529 0951 0976 0983 1017 1042 1093 1375

(2) FOURTEEN INCIDENTS INVOLVE INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE NOT ON THE PRG-DIC LIST, BUT WHOM THE JCRC BELIEVES TO HAVE BEEN CAPTURED OR DIC. REFNOS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

0011 0097 0235 0318 0333 1010 1035 1044 1078 1321 1335 1456 1523 1737

(3) TWENTY-EIGHT CRASH SITES INVOLVE INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE PROBABLY OUT OF THE AIRCRAFT AT THE TIME OF LOSS. REFNOS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

0210 0227 0703 0844 0849 1085 1086 1131 1147 1205 1244 1270 1402 1426
1440 1556 1575 1594 1598 1631 1660 1723 1820 1901 1927 1949 1981 1982

to be continued: