The National Alliance of Families mourns the passing of Dr. Michael Charney, noted forensic anthropologist, and good friend to the families of our POW/MIAs. Dr. Charney shared his expertise with family members across this nation, confirming good identifications and challenging the bad ones. He will be sorely missed. To his family, wife Jean and children Jacob, Sasha and Jerrod, we extend our deepest sympathy.

A memorial service will be held 2:00 P.M. Saturday, June 14th at the Catholic Student Union, 1220 University Ave. Fort Collins, Co. 80521. Cards may be sent to: 635 Peterson, Fort Collins, Co. 80524

Known Update - On Thursday, May 7th, Secretary of Defense William Cohen ordered the exhumation of the Vietnam Tomb of the Unknown. Preparation for the exhumation will commence on Tuesday, May 12th. The actual exhumation will take place on Thursday May 14th.

Smoke and Mirrors - in an effort to take focus of the fact that some officials of the United States Government knew and others suspected the identity of remains interred in the Tomb, the Pentagon announced the possibility that remains interred could be Rodney Strobridge. Strobridge is a helicopter pilot, lost the same day in the same general area. Pentagon officials have also contacted the families of crewmen lost on a C-130 in An Loc. In total, the Pentagon says nine men were lost in the recovery area and anyone of them could be the Vietnam Unknown. The Pentagon has requested blood samples from all families involved.

To justify their conclusion that the Unknown may be Rodney Strobridge, the Pentagon stated that blood grouping and height measurements more closely match Strobridge than Blassie. As reported by Laura Meyers of the Associated Press "Circumstantial physical evidence found with the Vietnam remains indicates they could be those of the St. Louis pilot, whose A-37 attack plane was shot down over South Vietnam in May 1972, Cragin said. However, other evidence including blood type and physical characteristics -- based on old forensic methods -- don't match..."

"...Older forensic evidence indicated the remains were of a man aged 26-33, between 5-foot-5 1/2 and 5-foot-11 1/2 tall, and with type O negative blood. Blassie, who was about six feet tall and age 24, had type A positive blood. Of the nine, Capt. Rodney Strobridge, a 30-year-old Army helicopter pilot from Ohio, most closely matched the forensic evidence from the remains... He was 5-foot-9 and 30 years old with type O negative blood... The old blood typing used is only 67 percent reliable under good circumstances...

What is not mentioned is that measurement techniques used in the early to mid 1980's "Morphological Approximation" the voodoo science of the "infamous" Tadeo Furue.

In a General Accounting Office Study prepared for the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs the GAO reported: "Some of the problems CILHI had been experiencing were evident to three forensic consultants who were hired by the Army to inspect CILHI's operations and facilities in 1985. Their report criticized CILHI for using identification techniques that were scientifically unacceptable and for having inadequate staff, facilities, and review procedures."

"According to these consultants, techniques CILHI was using to determine age and stature or remains could not be used with a high degree of reliability. In addition these consultants believed that CILHI incorrectly used a scientific technique known as "morphological approximation" to estimate bone fragment lengths and determine stature."

Definition - "Morphological approximation, in an anthropological context is a technique used for determining the length or shape of a fragment of bone by comparing the structure and form of that fragment to those of a sample of bones that is representative of the human population. CILHI's laboratory director told us that a past laboratory supervisor had inappropriately applied this technique by using the bone fragment estimates in a stature formula. Thus, the calculated stature estimates were not scientifically acceptable for making identifications."

Once, just once, wouldn't it be nice for the Pentagon to tell the whole story. The methods weren't older forensic methods, implying the available science of the times. The methods were a totally unaccepted procedure, used no where other than at CILHI.

In 1985, the Army hired three forensic consultants to "inspect CILHI's operations and facilities." In a 1986 letter to then Secretary of the Army John Marsh, one of those consultants wrote: "I was recently involved in a US Army, Criminal Investigation Division (CID) probe of irregularities and fraud involved in identification and procedures carried out by personnel at the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii on American Servicemen who died in the Pakse, Laos crash during the Vietnam war and the more recent Gander aircrash victims. Our local CID special agent informed me on 8 July 1986 that you had ordered CID to cease and desist the investigation. The special agent said it was the first time in his seven years with CID that he had seen an investigation stopped. The issue of misidentifications, fraudulent identifications, lack of professional ethics and incompetence at CILHI are very serious matters...."

"...The CID documentation... led.. to the inescapable conclusion that Lt. Col. Webb, Mr. Helgesen and Mr. Furue are incompetent at best...."

"...The Department of the Army could still possibly make a clean sweep of the incompetent staff at CILHI and prevent the sort of public exposure of this lab that will be increasingly aired in congress and the press..."

For the Record - The An Loc Nine - Michael Blassie, Harry Amesbury; Calvin E. Cooke, Richard E. Dunn, Donald R. Hoskins, Richard Russell, John Henn, Rodney Strobridge and Robert J. Williams.

If DOD is offering other possible identifications for the remains in the Vietnam Tomb of the Unknown, let's consider this -- Also lost in the An Loc area during the time frame of the Blassie loss are Issac Hosaka and Kurt Weisman. Remains of Issac Hosaka were recovered in June 1972. Remains of of Kurt Weisman were repatriated in 1975. We are checking into the loss location of Henry Spengler and Charles Windeler. It is possible they too were lost in the An Loc area. Remains for both men were repatriated in August 1989.

For now, we are not even going down this road, but think about it.

What the families have to say: (unless otherwise noted all quotes are from Associated Press articles.)

Pat Blassie "If we had been told that remains were found with Michael's ID card in 1972, this family would have reacted the same way it has now that we've been told just recently. It is important to know what happens to a serviceman... We believe the circumstantial evidence is so strong that actually DNA testing is not necessary, it's just in order that there would be no questions from anyone else." Reuters

Althea Strobridge (referring to her son Capt. Rodney Strobridge) - "I don't think it's him. I hope it isn't him... I hope they get this over with soon,"

Jeanette Hoskins (wife of Donald R. Hoskins) "I know my husband is not there... If I thought that them digging those bones up out there in Washington was going to make any difference whether my Donnie was going to be home living with me or not I'd be out there digging with my hands."

For the family of Harry Amesbury the situation is slightly different. In 1992, remains were recovered believed to be Harry Amesbury. From Associated Press "A partial skull and bones unearthed in Vietnam in 1992 gave Air Force Maj. Harry Amesbury Jr.'s relatives hope that they might finally be able to bury the pilot and the past. Yet, there was no identification. Last month, the Vietnamese turned over Amesbury's wedding ring and ID card along with a separate jaw fragment and a tooth. But still no resolution."

"Now, Amesbury's family is faced with the possibility that another set of remains may be his -- the unidentified Vietnam veteran buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in 1984.... So far, the Amesbury family has refused to provide a blood sample so the Pentagon can compare it to DNA samples from the Tomb remains: the pelvis, right upper arm and four ribs..."

Could the remains in the tomb of the Vietnam Unknown be someone other than Michael J. Blassie? - We asked Col. William Parnell, one of the three American Advisors who participated in the October 1972 recovery. Here is his answer. "The short answer is no. I knew Rod Strowbridge as well as Bob Williams of F/79 AFA -- "The Blue Max". They went in the same day as Lt. Blassie in a Cobra. The crash sites were too far apart for the remains to have been mixed. The loss of Strowbridge and Williams was very dear to me, since I was in the 3rd Brigade, !st Cav Div at the time of their shoot down and also spent time airborne over An Loc until I went in there as the G-3 Advisor to the 18th ARVN Division in July. Before I went to An Loc, I was Assistant S-3 of the Brigade and later commanded Task Force Garry Owen Artillery - the Blue Max worked for me then. I hope this is of value."

What did CIL-HI and/or the Pentagon know and when did they know it? That was the question asked in our January 24th edition of Bits 'N' Pieces. That was the wrong question! The correct question is: What did CIL-HI, the Pentagon, every member of the POW/MIA Inter Agency Group (IAG) and the White House know and when did they know it?

Declared Identified - Col. Richard Allee of Port Jervis, N.Y.; Col. Gordon Page of Palo Alto, Calif.; and Capt. Armon Shingledecker of Lima, Ohio. According to information available, all were identified using the latest forensic technology.

To their families - we hold you in our hearts and prayers during this difficult time. It is our hope that you now have the answers you have waited so long for.

Latest forensic technology - Translation -mt-DNA testing. No one seems to be bragging about mt-DNA testing now.

Let's talk mt-DNA - the following is excerpted from the associated press by By Malcolm Ritter -- "The conditions in southeast Asia are not very good for DNA," said Mitchell Holland, who oversees the military laboratory where the analysis will be done. "It's hot, humid, and the soils are somewhat acidic. And because of that, mtDNA is really the only available method."

"Even so, the Pentagon cautions that it's not certain the bones will be identified by the mtDNA analysis and other forensic examinations. In fact, there's not even a guarantee for remains from future wars."

"Two unrelated people generally have much different sequences, but a mother and son will show the same. Mothers -- not fathers -- pass mtDNA on to their children, so two people related through women can also have the same sequences."

"Two unrelated people generally have much different sequences," How does that explain the fact that the skull once believed to be Mark Judge matches 64 references in the database and that the arm matches one other?

Eastern Bloc Countries and NATO Expansion - The Senate voted to admit Poland, Hungry and the Czech Republic to NATO.

And the Good News -- Thanks to the efforts of Senators Bob Smith (R-NH) and Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Tx) Amendment 2314, aka the Smith-Hutchinson Amendment passed the Senate by a vote of 97 - 0. The amendment requires "full cooperation with United States efforts to obtain the fullest possible accounting of captured and missing United States Personnel from past military conflicts or Cold War incidents --- Prior to the deposit of the United States instrument of ratification, the President shall certify to Congress that each of the governments of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic are fully cooperating with Untied States efforts to obtain the fullest possible accounting...."

We thank our good friend Senator Bob Smith for his efforts in spearheading this legislation. Thanks also to Senator Hutchinson for her support.

The National Alliance of Families Ninth Annual Meeting is scheduled for June 18 - 20th, 1998 in Washington, D.C. Once again, we will meet at the Sheraton City Centre Hotel in Washington D.C. Room rates are $103.00 per night double occupancy. To make reservations, call 800-526-7495. time is running out to make your reservations.

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.

Contact us here!