BITS 'N' PIECES

Almost from the moment of his defection, General Sejna spoke of the transfer of American POWs through Eastern Bloc countries to the former Soviet Union. In spite of all the credible and accurate intelligence information provided by General Sejna on a wide range of subjects, his information on the transfer of POWs was deemed not credible and inaccurate by his employers at the Dept. of Defense. General Sejna provided his POW/MIA information to the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. However, only after his testimony before the House Subcommittee on Military Personnel did his information on POWs gain widespread attention. For that attention, General Sejna was quietly asked to "retire" from his position at DIA.

With the loss of General Sejna another voice for our POW/MIAs is stilled.

At 3:01 P.M. Monday, Ted Sampley will challenge the Park Service Ban, during a Press Conference, by offering "expressive material" free to anyone who purchases the organization's books from the Last Firebase. The Appeals Court stated that there is "nothing to stop appellees from giving away their expressive T-shirts on the Mall." Yet, Park Services has stated they will cancel demonstration permits of anyone who gives away "expressive material."

We ask -- by what right does Park Services overrule the decision of the Appeals Court? Mr. Sampley has filed a civil rights complaint with Congressman Walter B. Jones, Jr. Please contact Congressman Jones at Tel: 202-225-3415 or Fax him at 202-225-3286. Ask that he support Mr. Sampley's complaint.

Also contact Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt at 202-208-7351 or Fax him at 202-208-5133.

We can not allow the Last Firebase, the one public voice of our POW/MIAs in Washington, D.C., to be silenced.

Regular readers of Bits 'N' Pieces know of our deep involvement in the case of Kenneth Plumadore-Mark Judge-William Berry-??????-and ???????. It has been a year since we have brought you anything of substance on this case. It is time for an update.

On August 23 1996, the Marine Corp. contacted Mary Judge Jellison, mother of Mark Judge. In their letter signed by Lt. General C.A. Mutter an ultimatum was issued stating "If you have not authorized the release of the remains by September 6, 1996, we will have no alternative but to pursue legal action against you...." That deadline was one year ago today. Imagine how Mary Jellison felt. The weight of the United States Marine Corp against a grandmother from Indiana. Well, we are still waiting for the Marines to take their legal action.

To take legal action, you need legal grounds and quite simply the Marines don't have a leg to stand on and they know it. This case has been mishandled from day one. We have no idea where Kenneth Plumadore is. We have no idea who the remains, exhumed from the California grave are. We can tell you they are not those of Kenny Plumadore, Mark Judge or William Berry. Mt-DNA testing which is 100% conclusive in proving a no match has excluded the possibility that the remains from California might be Judge or Berry. Height and the presence of wisdom teeth rule out Kenneth Plumadore. The identification of the CIL-HI remains, once thought to be Mark Judge is now in serious question.

But guess what folks.... there is at least one other misidentification in this case occurring in November of 1967 and we have the documentation! We've refrained from comment hoping to give the Marines the opportunity to do the right thing. Well times run out!

One must remember that the Marine Corp said 15 Marines were left on the field at Con Thein on September 21, 1967.

Message traffic dated 23 Nov. 67 states: "1. On 14 October 67 fifteen skeletal remains were delivered to the Da Nang Mortuary by the 1st Marine Med. Bn. Records accompanied these remains and fourteen were identified and proc sed (sic.) The one remains which was unidentified would not compare with any records sent forward."

"2. Checking the medical records on file for MIA's Maj. James M. McGarvey's records were in very favorable agreement with the post mortem identification findings for this remains. Maj. McGarvey's name was given to the 1st Med Bn as a BTB (believed to be) for this remains. The 1st Med Bn informed identification specialist that Maj McGarvey's plane had gone down in this area were (sic) the remains were recovered and that they had reason to believe that at least one of the original fifteen remains had been replaced by another remains."

"3. With this information placing Maj McGarvey in this area, and the agreement of age and distinct dental characteristics it was recommended the remains DAD-1676-67, be identified as Major James M. McGarvey."

The McGarvey family was notified that remains were recovered and identified. On November 18th, 1967, the day after Mark Judge was buried in Indiana, the remains BTB Major James McGarvey were shipped from the Da Nang Mortuary to Dover Air Force Base. On December 19th, at Dover Air Force Base, it was determined that the remains were not those of Major James McGarvey.

Who did these remains belong to? Major McGarvey was at least 8 years older than the oldest Marine lost during Operation Kingfisher. What happened to the "agreement of age and distinct dental characteristics" between the remains and Major McGarvey? As to the loss location; Major McGarvey and his copilot Captain Carlton were lost over North Vietnam, not South Vietnam where the remains were recovered.

In a conversation with Major McGarvey's wife, Pat Plumadore (sister of Kenneth Plumadore) confirmed that Major McGarvey had distinctive and unmistakable dental work. How could such a misidentification occur? More importantly, what happened to the remains once thought to be Major James McGarvey?

According to the Marine Corp., the remains once thought to be Major McGarvey were consolidated with the remains of another Kingfisher loss. However, the Marine Corp. denies any exhumations of Kingfisher losses prior to the Indiana and California exhumations in 1996.

We know Mark Judge was the last documented Kingfisher burial on November 17th, 1967. The misidentification of Major McGarvey was not formalized until December 19th. So, how could these remains have been consolidated. What happened to these remains with the "distinct dental characteristics?" How could those "distinct dental characteristics" be misidentified in Da Nang? How many other misidentification are there?

The Marine Corp admits to leaving 15 Marines on the field September 21st, 1967. They claim to have recovered and identified 15 sets of remains. The memo clearly states "fifteen skeletal remains," arrived on October 14th. One of those sets of remains was shipped home as James McGarvey. If you are to believe the Marine Corp. fiction the other 14 were identified as the Marines of Operation Kingfisher, with Kenneth Plumadore the only unaccounted for Marine.

Yet, documentation proves beyond doubt that remains once believed to be William Berry did not arrive at DaNang mortuary until November 1st. That leaves us with one Marine to many or does it?

How does the misidentification of Major McGarvey fit into the Marine Corp threat to take legal action against Mary Jellison? It really doesn't. It is just another piece of the puzzle, a piece of information the Marine Corp. tried to hide and a piece of information unearthed in spite of their best efforts to withhold it.

However, there is information that directly relates to the Marine Corp's empty threat to take legal action. We are not going to get into that today. What we will do is restate Mary Jellison's requests and give the Marine Corp. another opportunity to do the right thing.

Mary Judge Jellison requests the following:

1) Independent mt-DNA testing on the CIL-HI remains.

2) CIL-HI and independent mt-DNA testing on the Indiana remains to rule out the probability that the Indiana remains are in fact Mark Judge.

In our June 29th Bits 'N' Pieces, we wrote of the briefing provided by Mr. James Canick of the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, we stated "As we knew the answers to all questions asked beforehand, we can say that Mr. Canick answered all but one of our questions as expected. Someday, in a future edition of Bits, we will be able to discuss that unexpected answer."

The next time we write about this case, there will be tremendous amount of embarrassment for the Marine Corp., CIL-HI and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL.)

In another edition of Bits we wrote "don't ever play poker with Dolores Alfond, she doesn't bluff." Well extend that warning to Pat Plumadore, Mary Jellison and Lynn O'Shea.