Day 36 -- Today marks the 36th day of captivity for PFC Keith Matthew Maupin, captured when his convoy was ambushed in Iraq on April 9th. One week later, a video aired showing PFC Maupin. At the time the video was taken, PFC Maupin appeared to be in reasonably good condition.

On April 23^rd, the Department of Defense issued a Press Release to announce "a change in the status of a soldier serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom from duty status - whereabouts unknown to captured. Pfc. Keith M. Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, was declared captured on April 16."

The military now carries PFC Maupin as Captured or Missing-Captured. Unfortunately, since his capture, the uneducated media often referres to him as a "hostage." Both are wrong. PFC Maupin is a Prisoner of War.

Please offer a prayer for the safe return of PFC Maupin and for his family during this difficult time.

Get Well Wishes -- for Fran Masterson, wife of POW/MIA Michael "Bat" Masterson. Fran is currently hospitalized. Cards may be sent to Fran Masterson at San Antonio Community Hospital, 999 San Bernardino Road, Room 344A, Upland, CA 91786.

From Rescue to Recovery Mission -- Speicher is getting screwed! According to Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) the military has advise him that there is no hope that Scott Speicher is alive. The rescue mission is now a mission of remains recovery. The following is excerpted from an April 2nd Associated Press article:

"U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said Friday the military is refocusing the search for missing Navy pilot Scott Speicher in Iraq from a rescue mission to a recovery mission. Nelson, D-Fla., told The Florida Times-Union he was informed of the change Friday by Army Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton, head of the team in Iraq charged with resolving the fate of the Jacksonville pilot, whose plane was shot down on the first night of the 1991 Gulf War."

"Gen. Dayton assured me that they will continue the search until they find conclusive evidence about the fate of Capt. Speicher," Nelson said. "This final information is important for the Navy, important for the country but especially important for the family, which has endured so much."

"Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Ken McClellan said Speicher's status has not changed. It remains missing-captured...."

"Nelson's spokesman, Dan McLaughlin, said the general was "giving a heads up" to the senator and the Speicher family. Nelson said he was unaware of any new evidence being uncovered...."

Speicher and the Voice Of America -- The following transcript of a May 13th, comes from the VOA Web Site. "ACCOUNTING FOR GULF WAR MISSING The following is an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government:"

"The only American still unaccounted for in the 1991 Persian Gulf War is U.S. Navy Captain Michael Scott Speicher. He was the pilot of an F-18 Navy jet that was shot down or crashed in the Iraqi desert between Baghdad and the Jordanian border on January 17th, 1991."

"In March 1991, all known prisoners from the U.S.-led coalition were repatriated from Iraqi custody. All known remains of those killed in action were also returned, with the exception of Speicher and one pilot from Saudi Arabia. In May 1991, the U.S. changed Speicher's status from missing in action to killed in action."

"After long and difficult negotiations with the Saddam Hussein regime, U.S. experts visited the crash site of Speicher's aircraft in December 1995 and spent five days investigating. The U.S. government pressed Iraqi authorities for information concerning Speicher, but cooperation was not forthcoming."

"Reports from a number of sources indicated that he might have survived the crash. Accordingly, the U.S. Navy, in January 2001, revised Speicher's status to missing in action. On October 11th, 2002, he was reclassified as "missing-captured."

"Since the end of major combat in Iraq in May 2003, the U.S. has made intensive efforts to find Captain Speicher or his remains. That investigation continues. The area where Speicher's aircraft crashed is a known Bedouin area. The U.S. believes that Bedouins who were encamped there at the time of the crash may have information regarding Speicher's fate."

"The United States will give asylum to any person and his or her parents, spouse, and children from anywhere in the greater Middle East who personally delivers Captain Speicher into the custody of the U.S. government. Anyone with information concerning him should contact U.S. authorities."

U.S. and North Korea Recover Korean War Remains -- from United Press International, April 12: "The Pentagon said Monday specialists from the United States and North Korea are working to recover the remains of Americans missing since the Korean War."

"Supplies and equipment were transported across Korea's demilitarized zone to U.S. recovery teams for the first time since 1996, when the joint effort began. And, the Pentagon said, U.S. remains accompanied by recovery team members will return across the DMZ at the end of each operation for the first time since 1999."

"In late 2003, U.S. and North Korean negotiators scheduled five operations for 2004 in Unsan County and near the Chosin Reservoir, both sites of major battles and heavy losses of U.S. servicemen."

"More than 88,000 Americans are missing in action from World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War and Desert Storm. The current effort marks the ninth consecutive year in which U.S. teams have operated inside North Korea, bringing home remains of the more than 8,100 soldiers missing in action from the war. Specialists from the Joint POW/Missing Personnel Command have, the Pentagon said, recovered more than 180 remains since 1996 in 27 separate operations."

Whatever Happened to Truth In Advertising -- The Kerry campaign has produced a new ad titled "Lifetime." The spot airs in the following markets: Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa, New Mexico, Oregon, Wisconsin, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nevada, West Virginia, Arizona, Arkansas, Washington, Ohio, Louisiana and Colorado and nationally on cable networks. According to the announcer, Kerry "joined with John McCain to find the truth about POWs and MIAs in Vietnam...."

Finding the truth..... this Presidential candidate didn't even come close... So much for truth in advertising!

The Next Secretary of Defense -- During an interview with radio personality Don Imus, Presidential candidate John Kerry stated his first choice for Secretary of Defense would be John McCain.

H. Res. 402 -- Congratulations to all those who worked so hard on H. Res 402 "expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the urgent need for freedom, democratic reform, and international monitoring of elections, human rights, and religious liberty in the Lao People's Democratic Republic...."

This important statement on human rights passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 408 - 1.

Special tip of the hat to Danny "Greasy" Belcher who spearheaded the email push on this important legislation.

H. Res 103 -- to form a House Select Committee on POW/MIAs is still held in committee. It is unbelieveable that a resolution with 53 cosponsors has not made it out of committee. With elections looming and all 435 members of the House of Representatives up for re-election, no time is left for any investigation, should this legislation somehow come to a vote. That means we will need to start over in the next session of congress.

We ask you all to keep the pressure on your congressional representative, requesting their commitment to a resolution to form a House Select Committee on POW/MIAs in the next session of Congress.

We thank you all for your hard work on H. Res 103 and know we can count on your support in the next session of Congress.

Busy Month of April -- National Alliance of Families Chairperson Dolores Alfond represented the Alliance at two meetings in Washington D.C., in April. The first was a three day conference beginning April 13th. The meeting, hosted by DPMO, was held at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in College Park, Md.

The prime topic of discussion was the effort to locate documentation, in Russian archives, on American servicemen, prisoner and missing. According to a Defense Dept Press Release the purpose of the conference was to "examine issues of declassification of military and political documents; technical aids to improve the operation of a modern archive; Korean and Vietnam War documents held in Russian archives; and other issues of importance to the American effort to account for missing U.S. servicemen."

Ms. Alfond returned to D.C. for the April 30 - May 1 government briefing for Korean - Cold War Family Members. The two-day briefing was held at the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner Hotel. The meeting included discussions on recovery operations, and the use of mt-DNA in the identification process. Family members also had the opportunity to discuss their individual cases, with government representatives.

During the days prior to and directly following the to Korean Cold War Family briefings, several families took the opportunity to hold memorial services at Arlington National Cemetery. Among them were the families of Capt. Osborne T. Carlisle, Capt. Ara Mooradian, Tech Sgt. William J. Botter and Lt. Col. Gerald E. Montgomery.

We recognized one of the name and went back into our archives and found this. Here is what we wrote in the September 8, 2001 edition of Bits N Pieces:

Where is Capt. Ara Mooradian, - Lost October 23rd 1951 - Capt. Mooradian is among the over 8,000 missing as a result of the Korean War. Did Capt. Mooradian die that day in 1951 or was he among the hundreds of POWs transferred to the Soviet Union? The following is excerpted from an August 26th 1993 report, produced by the Joint Commission Support Branch, Research and Analysis Division, DPMO - titled "The Transfer of U.S. Korean War POWs To The Soviet Union."

[Report Begins] One of the most precise reports was made by Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kazersky to Task Force Russia-Moscow team members on 27 October 1992. Mr. Kazersky had been decorated twice in the Great Patriotic War but thereafter had been sentenced to twenty years in the camps. He served at a camp called Zimka in the Komi ASSR and was released in the general amnesty after Stalin's death. He stated that while in the camp, he met U.S. Korean War POW from California. According to the TFR-M report:

Kazersky was aware that there were Americans at Zimka from camp rumor, and, in the Fall of 1952 or the Spring of 1953, he had a single encounter with an American pilot who had been shot down in North Korea and forced to land in Soviet territory near Vladivostok. The pilot said his plane had a crew of three and his radioman had been in Zimka as well, but had possibly been moved to another camp called "Yaser" after a brief period. The pilot did not know what had happened to the third crew member.

The pilot remained at Zimka for three to six months, and was then transferred to an unknown location. He was about thirty years old, five feet seven inches tall, slender, dark-haired and dark-complected, and in good health. He did not smoke and had a small oval scar on one of his cheeks. Kazersky believes he was of southern European origin, perhaps Italian or Greek. The pilot, whose nickname was "The American" (Amerikanets) lived in barracks number six, and worked in the consumer goods (Shirpotreb) section making frames for greenhouses. Kazersky had direct contact with the American only once and communication was difficult. the pilot had been in isolation for a year or more, and had learned very little Russian. Kazersky knew very little English. He could not recall the pilot's name (prisoners were almost always addressed by nickname, but is still firmly convinced that he was an American pilot.

At our request provided this information to Air Force Casualty Affairs which did a computer search of its MIAs using the military and biographical information stated by Mr. Kazersky. Air Force Casualty found a surprisingly close match in Capt Ara Mooradian, USAF, who was reported missing in action on 23 October 1951.

Although not all information matched perfectly, there was agreement on the following points:

1. Mooradian's date of loss could-have placed him in a camp at the time stated by Kazersky.

2. He was from Fresno, California, the state Kazersky remembered.

3. Mooradian fit the physical description and was dark- haired and complected. He was of Armenian origin and could have been confused in Kazersky's memory for a southern European.

4. Six members of Mooradian's B-29 were listed as missing in action, two bodies were recovered, and five were repatriated. The man Kazersky met could have been referring to the survivors of his crew that were in the camp, one of whom was the radar -- not radio -- operator.

5. Although there was nothing in Capt Mooradian's file that indicated he had a facial scar, an examination of his photo in Air Force Manual 200-25 showed a faint round scar on his right cheek. This photo was enhanced by the National Photographic Interpretation Center whose analysts concluded that the mark was not a photographic anomaly but probably was indeed a scar.

The areas of disagreement with Kazersky's statement are:

1. Mooradian's aircraft was shot down over the Bay of Korea which was on the opposite side of the Korean Peninsula from Vladivostok.

2. He was the bombardier rather than the pilot of his B-29.

3. His aircraft had a crew of thirteen and not three.

4. Capt Mooradian was 6'1/2" tall instead of 5'8".

At a subsequent interview, Mr. Kazersky was shown a photo line-up of missing pilots and asked to identify the American he had met. He chose four photos as possibly being the one, one of which was that of Capt Mooradian. [Report Ends]

Visit our website at http://www.nationalalliance.org/korea/korea00.htm for the full text of this 77 page report. It is well worth the read.

Can You Identify These Army POWs -- We've printed this photo before in an attempt to identify the two Army POWs, with no success. The photo was obtained by Donna Downs Knox, former President of the Korea Cold War Families Association, during a visit to Poland. The photo was found in an archive there.

The caption below the photo reads:
CERTE TRIUMFOS LA POPOLO DE VJETNAMIO!
CERTE MALVENKOS LA USONAJ AGRESANTOJ!
La Tria Kajero
FREMDLINGVA ELDONEJO
Pekino 1966
Presita en Cina Popola Respublika

Based on the caption, we've restricted our search to servicemen captured or missing in 1966 or earlier, with no luck. We are now asking everyone to take another look at the photo, without regard to a time restriction of 1966 or prior. These two men are obviously American, seem to be in captivity and at least one of them is obviously Army as indicated by the "S. ARMY" visible on his uniform. If you can identifiy these POWs, please contact us at lynn@nationalalliance.org

Editors Note: We, like most Americans, were appalled by the abuse of Iraqi POWs, by American soldiers. There is no excuse.....

That said, we have to wonder if the Defense Department policy decision to eliminate the status Prisoner of War replacing it with the less humanized status of Missing-Captured, sent a message that deminished the statue of those captured, be they American soldiers or our enemies.

To all sides we have only four words...... Geneva Conventions...... Read them!

The National Alliance Of Families Fifteenth Annual Forum is scheduled for June 24th - 26th, 2004. Our forum is conducted to coincide with the Governments annual Vietnam POW/MIA Family Briefings. We urge all family members to attend this years government briefings. The government will provide free airfare to two family members to attend the government briefings. There is no charge or registration fee to attend the government briefings and you do not have to belong to an organization to attend these briefings.

This year the Alliance meeting will be held at the Sheraton Crystal City (same as last year) located at 1800 Jefferson Davis Highway, in Arlington Va. Rate for single or double occupancy is $99.00 per night plus tax.

The hotel is located across the street from both the Crystal City Underground Food Court and the Metro Stop. The Sheraton is within walking distance of the hotel hosting the government briefings. The Alliance is working on transportation between hotels for those who prefer to ride. To make your reservations, call 703-486-1111 and remember to say you want the special National Alliance of Families rate.

The Alliance is an all volunteer organization. Our meetings are open to all, without charge. At this time of year, we actively seek contributions to finance our forum. If you wish to contribute, donations may be mailed to:

National Alliance Of Families

P.O. Box 40327

Bellevue, Wa. 98015.

Remember all contributions are tax deductible.