2004 - We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and wish you all the best for a healthy and Happy New Year!

The Best of Times.... The Worst of Times.... - that phrase seems appropriate as we look back on 2003. For the first time in American history, full accountability was achieved for all POWs and MIAs (MIA-C's and DUSTWUN's) from Operation Iraqi Freedom. We rejoiced at the rescue of PFC Jessica Lynch and the liberation of CWO's David Williams, and Ronald Young, Sgt James Riley, SPC's Edgar Hernandez, Joseph Hudson, and Shoshana Johnson and PFC Patrick Miller.

We watched in wonder, as four more South Korean soldiers, captured by the North, some 50 years ago and denied by their captors, made their way South, back to freedom and their families. Again, we ask the question, if South Korean soldiers were held and survived the brutalities of the North Korean prison system, why not American's?

Unfortunately, for our Gulf War I, Vietnam, Korean, Cold War and World War II POWs and MIAs, it was business as usual and that was bad.... very bad.

Remains Identification in 2003 remained an exercise in creative accounting. In the ongoing effort to reduce the list of unaccounted for personnel, missing servicemen continue to be identified and buried without remains or evidence of death. One bright note.... in at least one case, CIL-HI (now JPAC) pushed their creative identification process too far. In March 2003 the identifications of Robert Govan and David Williams were rescinded.

Live Sighting Reports continue to be ignored, with no live sighting investigations authorized.

The search for Gulf War I POW, Scott Speicher, never lived up to the hype. Forces entering Iraq were never properly briefed, on Speicher. The country should have been blanketed with leaflets asking for Speicher before we ever reached Baghdad. Every time a soldier opened an MRE, they should have seen a leaflet on Speicher.

We recently received an email from the mom of a soldier in Iraq. She was quite upset, because her son knew nothing of Speicher.

Finally, Speicher should have been the Ace of Hearts in the deck of 52! Remember the reward for Saddam was 25 million.... the reward for Speicher.... 1 million.

On August 16, 2003, we published the comments of a source we referred to as "Buddy." Buddy offered many comments on the handling and mis-handling of the Speicher case, including this one: "".... Speicher was not a priority; too many people believed he died in 1991. After the invasion, CENTCOM said to the invaders, "Oh by the way, when you enter the prisons, look for Speicher."

Sadly, it seems the Speicher investigation, was not the only intelligence failure in Iraq. In October 2003 the Army issued a Lessons Learned Report on Intelligence Gathering in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was so critical of overall Intelligence efforts, that the report was pulled from the Army web site [it may have been returned to the Army site, since we last checked.] To clarify, they were not critical of the men involved in the operation. They were critical of the failure to provide those men with the necessary training, direction, resources and support. We have excerpted two sections of the report, relevant to intelligence gathering. Certainly, the deficiencies cited in the Army report could have directly impacted the Speicher investigation.

In a section titled: "Issue: Iraq/Afghanistan -- Are Junior Military Intelligence Soldiers Prepared for Tactical Roles?" the report reads:

"Observation: Why do commanders in the field think that junior intelligence officers and soldiers are not prepared to take on tactical intelligence roles? Comments from military intelligence and maneuver commanders were that junior military intelligence (MI) officers and 96Bs should have been better prepared for tactical assignments. The trend that we observed during OIF [Operation Iraqi Freedom] and OEF [Operation Enduring Freedom] was that lieutenants, who have been serving in units for 6-8 months, and E-1 thru E-4 96Bs did not appear to be prepared for tactical assignments. Captains serving as battalion S2s generally possessed the skill needed to be an S2, but lacked any advanced analytical capabilities.

Discussion: These are some of the issues that we observed on junior MI soldiers from OIF and OEF (the officers referred to are lieutenants and the 96Bs, E-1 thru E-4):

• Officers: Did not understand the targeting process and were unable to produce the products to support the targeting process. Most of the officers understood the concept of intelligence support to targeting…at the division and corps levels. During interviews with many officers, they stated that they were never taught targeting at the battalion and brigade levels.

• Officers and 96Bs: Weak intelligence briefing skills. If the primary (S2, senior intelligence analyst) was unable to brief, commanders usually forwent the intelligence portion of the brief.

• Officers and 96Bs: Very little to no analytical skills. This is also a trend that we have observed at the CTCs for the past 10 years.

• Officers and 96Bs: Did not understand their role in the MDMP. This was extremely evident during the COA development and the wargaming process.

• Officers and 96Bs: Unable to develop the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) plan and lacked the fundamentals of collection management. Did not understand the asset capabilities and limitations.

• 96Bs: Only understood the basic fundamentals of ASAS. Basically, they could perform limited data entry. This might not have had an adverse effect on operations considering that ASAS did not function well below division level.

• Officers and 96Bs: Lacked common tactical skills such as operating communications systems.

Issue: Iraq/Afghanistan - Interpreters.

Observation: The lack of competent interpreters through out the theater impeded operations. When interpreters were integrated into operations, they were not used to their full capability.

Discussion: Bottom line, the U.S. Army does not have a fraction of the linguists required to operate in the Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR). We have to rely on contract linguists for Dari, Pashtun, and the numerous dialects of Arabic. This develops into a big problem, because, not only do you have to have fluent linguists, but you also have to obtain one that can comprehend military terms and operations. In most cases, the interpreters also need some degree of physical stamina to support military operations in a field environment. Laugh if you will, but many of the linguists with which I conversed were conveience store workers and cab drivers, most over the age of 40. None had any previous military experience. Most military

linguists working in Iraq and Afghanistan only possess, on the average, a 2/2 Forces Command (FORSCOM) rating (which basically gives them the ability to tell the difference between a burro and a burrito).

The next problem with interpreters was asset utilization. With this limited asset, what is the priority for employment? Because of the limited number of interpreters, we observed that there was not much continuity in working with the same elements, or, in many cases, interpreters working to the point of burnout. They are mercenaries and are getting paid, but the tradeoff with long hours is that the quality of support is degraded.

There are TTP for working with interpreters. For most soldiers, the notion of working with a foreign-speaking civilian is a new and novel concept. Home-Station training with linguists is not common, and rarely occurs at the CTCs. The most common mistake soldiers make while working with interpreters was that they speak directly to the interpreter and wait for him to translate rather then have eye contact and speak directly to the foreign national, with the interpreter speaking in the background. In many cultures, not speaking directly to a person shows a lack of respect and trust. Another observation is that the foreign national gives a 10-minute answer and the interpreter translates yes or no. Who knows what agenda the interpreter has? If the soldier isn't keen enough to pick up on this, there could be problems with a common understanding of future situations.

Les sons Learned/TTP: There are numerous recommendations, but only a few that we can influence in the near future.

• Have language training at Home Station. The days of going to the "language lab" one day a week to read foreign comic books or interrogate your roommate are over. Immersion training is the key to success.

• Incorporate interpreter scenarios at the CTCs, at least with HUMINT soldiers. The interpreter scenario was attempted during the Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) rotation at the JRTC.

• Add an asset manager at the unit level, similar to a collection manager for interpreters. We can no longer afford to send interpreters in "support" of units to buy chickens and soft drinks.

Treat Yourself To A Belated Holiday Gift - If you haven't already done so, order "Leave No Man Behind" by Garnett "Bill" Bell with George J. "Jay" Veith. The publishers web site describes the book as follows:

"The Vietnam War's POW/MIA issue has haunted America since the early stages of the war. Shrouded in controversy, a subject of great emotion amid charges of governmental conspiracy and Communist deceit, the possibility of American servicemen being held in secret captivity after the war's end has influenced U.S. policy toward Southeast Asia for three decades. Now, the first chief of the U.S. POW/MIA office in postwar Vietnam provides an insider's account of that effort. In an illuminating and deeply personal memoir, the government's top POW/MIA field investigator discusses the history of the search for missing Americans, reveals how the Communist Vietnamese stonewalled U.S. efforts to discover the truth, and how the standards for MIA case investigations were gradually lowered while pressure for expanded commercial and economic ties with communist Vietnam increased. Leave No Man Behind is the compelling story of one man's quest, at great individual cost, to find the truth about America's missing in action from the Vietnam War."

We read the outline for the first several chapters and all we can say is that we can't wait to get our copy. To order visit: http://www.goblinfernpress.com/bookpage_lnmb.html

Be On The Lookout For - the April 2004 edition of Vietnam Magazine due out in February. The magazine contains an article by Bill Bell on the case of four soldiers captured April 21, 1967. The four, Spc4 Thomas Mangino and PFC's Paul Hasenbeck, Daniel Nidds and David Winter were members of the 4/31 196 Light Infantry Brigade. Listed as "Last Known Alive" the four remain unaccounted for. For more information on this case visit http://www.nationalalliance.org/four/index.htm

Candlelight Vigil for Speicher - Friends Working To Free Scott Speicher will hold a Candlelight Vigil Saturday Janaury 17^th in Washington D.C. Friends and supporters will gather for the 5:00 - 7:00 PM vigil on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building. Guest speakers to be announced.

If you are in the area, stop by and show your support for Capt. Speicher. A group rate at the Holiday Inn on the Hill, located at 415 New Jersey Ave. NW, is available for those wishing to travel to D.C. for the vigil. Rate is $99.00 per night plus taxes. Call 800-638-1116 for reservations. Be sure to mention you are with Friends Working To Free Scott Speicher, group code "FWF". Deadline for reservations is January 5^th. For additional information contact Friends Working to Free Scott Speicher at www.freescottspeicher.com

>Why Does Johnie Webb still have his job??????

Should Old Acquaintances Be Forgot - Never..... It's good to keep track of old friends and we were thrilled to read a recent Associated Press report that our dear friend Bob Smith is considering a run for the Senate from his newly adopted home state of Florida. Smith is a great friend of our POW/MIAs, the military and our veterans. He has been sorely missed in the Senate. Florida residents...... take note.

Forgotten POWs shame South Korea - Dec 27, 2003, from the Sydney Morning Herald, by Barbara Demick in Seoul.... "Fifty years after North Korea made him a prisoner of war, a South Korean man has returned to his homeland amid recriminations that his repatriation took so long."

"Jeon Yong-il, 72, had escaped from North Korea in June by swimming across the Tumen River into China. There he contacted the South Korean embassy but was repeatedly turned away. He was eventually arrested by the Chinese and was about to be deported to North Korea when war veterans activists in South Korea heard of his plight and began demonstrating on his behalf. "I haven't forgotten my fatherland. I served for my country for the past 50 years," Mr Jeon said, smiling exultantly through tears on arrival at Seoul on Wednesday."

"Looking thin but healthy, Mr Jeon was accompanied by a female companion who was said to be a North Korean defector. The two were immediately taken for questioning by South Korean intelligence. Mr Jeon is expected to be reunited with his surviving family, two sisters and a brother, over the weekend. Mr Jeon has become a cause celebre for anti-communist and veterans groups in South Korea who believe their government has not pressed for the release of hundreds of its citizens in North Korea for fear of upsetting the rapprochement between the estranged countries."

"The South Korean Defense Ministry estimates there are about 500 POWs still alive in North Korea, in addition to 487 people who are listed as having been abducted after the end of the 1950-53 war. North Korea denies holding any of them."

"It is a disgrace. Even when a POW comes knocking on the door, he is turned away," said Choi Song-ryong, who is president of an association representing families of abducted South Koreans. A public outcry had erupted after the activists released a short video taken of Mr Jeon waiting despondently outside the embassy in Beijing.

"In response, South Korea intervened with China to request Mr Jeon's release and the dropping of charges for his attempt to use a false passport. The South Korean Defense Ministry has apologized and said that Mr Jeon Will be entitled to back pay and compensation of as much as $400,000.

Cold War POWs in Former Soviet Union - the following is excerpted from a Dec. 31^st article, titled "Families Left in Dark About Long Lost Airmen" by Russell Ben-Ali for Newhouse News Service. Mr. Ben-Ali is also a staff writer for the Star-Ledger of Newark, NJ.

"For Raymond Goulet, each new year begins with hope that there will be more news of his brother. An Air Force radio man and gunner, Roland Goulet was shot down off the coast of the Soviet Union on a spy mission it took his government 40 years to acknowledge."

"Some days Raymond Goulet even imagines his brother walking through the door of his home in Moorestown, N.J. "You never really give up hope," Goulet says of the search for his brother, who was aboard a flight sent to size up Soviet radar capabilities along the Sea of Japan on July 29, 1953. "But it's been a frustration for my family."

"From 1950 to 1969, 165 airmen disappeared during Cold War reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union, North Korea and China; 126 people are still unaccounted for, according to the Pentagon. Their work was so secret that the United States did not publicly admit the flights had happened until 1992. The secret flights were known as "ferret missions," in which U.S. aircraft few close enough to Soviet borders to invite a response that would help pinpoint Soviet radar. It proved to be deadly work. Families of the missing airmen initially were told by the government the planes disappeared or were shot down during routine training flights or while doing weather reconnaissance."

"Now that the United States and Russia are friendly, the two countries are working together to help families find out what really happened to the lost airmen. A special commission, called the United States-Russia Joint Commission on POWs and MIAs, was established in March 1992, months after the breakup of the U.S.S.R., to investigate the "ferret missions" and other reconnaissance flights."

"The commission on prisoners of war and those missing in action tries to determine whether U.S. servicemen are being held against their will in the territory of the former Soviet Union, and, if so, to secure their immediate release and repatriation, according to the U.S. Defense Department. It also seeks the return of the remains of any deceased U.S. servicemen interred in the former Soviet Union. Much of the work is being done at the Central Archives of the Naval Forces of the Russian Federation at Gatchina, near St. Petersburg."

"At home, Defense Department officials hold monthly meetings in different cities to brief families on the mission's work and provide any updates. Sometimes there's nothing new to tell. Over the years, a few tidbits have come to the Goulets."

"It's frustrating because you want to find out something more," said Susan Goulet, Raymond's wife. "And you just come home and find out that you really didn't learn much."

"The process is slow, officials said. It involves interviewing and reinterviewing surviving fighter pilots and witnesses and recovering and sharing classified documents that were stashed in warehouses long ago. "It's been a very, very difficult thing because we have to rely a great deal on our access to Russian archives," said Larry Greer, a Defense Department spokesman. "But we have been able to develop some tantalizing leads on reports of burials of Americans who we believe were held in the Soviet Union," Greer said."

"William E. Burrows, an aerospace historian, has written about the "ferret missions" in his book "By Any Means Necessary: America's Secret Air War in the Cold War." "It was a cat-and-mouse game," he said of the flights."

"The Soviets would use radar to track the U.S. aircraft and send fighter planes to intercept them, said Jeffrey T. Richelson, a senior fellow at the National Security Archive in Washington. The pilots would try to evade enemy fighters and rush back to overseas bases while the crew recorded Soviet radar frequencies. The Russians knew the drill well and often withheld the use of radar until the last minute, forcing the flights to come closer and closer to Soviet soil."

"For nearly four decades, the United States maintained that Roland Goulet's crew disappeared on a routine navigational training flight 40 miles off the Soviet coast, according to a report by the joint commission's Cold War Working Group."

"But in 1992 a commission report revealed he was aboard an RB-50 aircraft, a reconnaissance bomber plane heavily altered for intelligence-gathering, when it was shot down by two Soviet MiG-17 fighter planes just outside Vladivostok, U.S.S.R., in 1953. The only confirmed survivor, Air Force Capt. John E. Roche, plunged into the Sea of Japan from the burning plane, but Soviet and U.S. documents released to the commission suggest that there could be others."

"Roche later told investigators that he eluded floating slicks of burning fuel and curious sharks until a U.S. Navy warship plucked him from the water, according to commission findings from 1992 to 1996. From his position, Roche said, he could see Soviet patrol boats in the waters around him that appeared to be searching for survivors. At the urging of intelligence officers, Roche remained silent about the mission for many years."

"A Soviet sergeant watching from his post on a nearby Russian island told U.S. interviewers in 1993 that he saw seven parachutes descending from the burning aircraft within two minutes of the engagement, a commission report states. U.S. search and rescue operations dropped a lifeboat to four survivors spotted from the air following the encounter, according to commission notes. Three other survivors were spotted in the water about a mile away."

"A commission report says that at first the Soviets maintained there was only a fishing trawler nearby. The Russian co-chairman of the commission later said there were Soviet patrol boats in the area but, curiously, none of their logbooks were ever found, the report says. The bodies of two crew members were later found along the coast of Japan. Goulet and 13 other airmen remain unaccounted for."

"Families of the airmen say there is much bitterness still over the way the government misled them about their deaths. Some are angry that they were misled into thinking their sons may have died in an accident or may have gotten lost when in fact they died in combat. Some families think the facts behind the spy missions and the fate of U.S. personnel may never become public because they could embarrass two governments."

"Given that situation, as you can imagine, nobody is anxious to uncover instances where Russians brutalized American flyers in the gulags, in prisons and so on," Burrows said. "They just want it to die, to go away."

"....Nobody is anxious to uncover instances where Russians brutalized American flyers in the gulags...., They just want it to die, to go away." - The governments of all countries involved would like nothing better than for the issue of unaccounted for Prisoners of War and Missing in Action to die.... to go away. The reason for this is that those charged with this issue, for the most part, believe their own hype, Vietnam is fully cooperating... We follow every lead.... We leave no stone unturned.... This is the highest national priority.... when we and they know this is simply not true.

U.S. officials refuse to acknowledge the possibility of live POWs, when overwhelming evidence shows POWs were left behind at the end of America's wars. We go back to the words of Jeon Yong-il, the most recent POW to escape from North Korea.... "I haven't forgotten my fatherland. I served for my country for the past 50 years." He was certainly more faithful to his "fatherland" then his country was to him.

One can almost imagine hearing those words from Korean War POWs Roger Dumas, or Richard Desaeutel. Change the number of years, but not by much, and those words could come from Cold War POWs Samuel Busch or Jack Lively, or Vietnam POWs James McLean, John McDonnell, Charles Shelton, or David Hrdlicka and what would Scott Speicher be thinking.

Remember the unaccounted for crew of the RB 50....

Capt. Frand E. Beyer

Capt. Edmund J. Czyz

Ssgt. Donald W. Gabree

A1C Roland E. Goulet

Ssgt. Donald G. Hill

Capt. James G. Keith

A2C Charles J. Russell

Capt. Warren J. Sanderson

Capt. Robert E. Stalnaker

Maj. Francisco J. Tejeda

Capt. John C. Ward

Capt. Lloyd C. Wiggins

A2C James Woods

A2C Earl W. Radlein

Remember all our unaccounted for POWs and MIAs.