Ok, Now We’re Getting Just Plain Ticked Off – If the “domestic” status for captured American’s has always been Missing/Captured as both a recent memo and DPMO representatives claim, perhaps someone can explain the following to us:

            1. Last year at both the Denver and Portland Family Updates Dolores Alfond was told by a DPMO representative the POW status did exist. In Denver she was promised a copy of the controlling directive governing a POW status. In Portland, she was told, by that same DPMO representative, the controlling directive was mailed. Needless to say, no controlling directive was ever received. Why was Dolores Alfond told that a non-existent controlling directive governing a POW status would be provided?

            2. Last July reporters from both the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Washington Times did stories on subject of a POW status or lack thereof. Both reporters were told that a POW status did exist but referring to the Maupin case, said he did not meet the standards to be declared POW. The Atlanta Journal Constitution quoted Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner. “ 'Captured' is a category available to describe a particular situation that fits in this case..... They [Maupin and Hassoun] don't fall into that [POW] category right now," said Turner.”

According to the Washington Times article “Shari Lawrence, deputy public affairs officer of the Army Human Rights Command, said it was a simple matter of following the established guidelines for classifying captured service members. "To be a prisoner of war, you have to be held by a recognized government," she said, which has not been the case with Spc. Maupin and many other American soldiers captured during the war in Iraq.”

Last year, DOD was trying to convince the media a Prisoner of War status existed, it just didn’t apply to Matt Maupin or Scott Speicher. This year the Prisoner of War status never existed domestically. Why did Department of Defense representative state that a POW status existed, when they now say it doesn’t?

            3. The now familiar memo changing the status of Navy Capt. Scott Speicher to MIA/C states that the controlling directives do not use the term Prisoner of War. If Prisoner of Was as a “term” status or designation, whatever you want to call it never existed, why comment on it?

Perhaps it is now time to let the documentation speak for itself

Three of the most well known POWs from the Vietnam War are civilian Eugene DeBruin and Air Force Col.’s Charles Shelton and David Hrdlicka. Here is how one March 31, 1974 document refers to DeBruin, Shelton, Hrdlicka and Emmett Kay:

The very same document, on page one, contained a clarification on the phrase “Unaccounted for Personnel” and made clear the distinction between a “PW or MIA status.

This document went on to describe:

The full text of this lengthy report may be found at www.nationalalliance.org/powstatus/740331.htm

It’s not only reports such as this that refer to a Prisoner of War status. The PW or POW designation is found in individual files as well.

David Demmon was originally carried by his branch of service and DIA as Missing in Action, until reports of his captivity compelled a change of status and as this record indicates that status was Prisoner of War.

The full document may be viewed at www.nationalalliance.org/powstatus/demmon.htm

Demmon is not the only one listed is a PW or Prisoner status. Case summaries prepared for General Vessey describe the status at Homecoming for various individuals as Prisoner or Prisoner of War. One of the many examples is that of James McLean

Daniel Borah – When Dan Borah went down, signal intelligence reported his capture. Based on this information a summary report was issued on 29, Nov. 1972. That report stated “Recommend that the above be carried as a Prisoner in South Vietnam.”

At the very bottom of the page of that document is reproduced below. You will notice a checked box. Next to that box are the words “Recommend Status Change to PW”

View full text of the document to the right

at www.nationalalliance.org/powstatus/borah.htm

Back in 1995, DPMO was required to present a “Comprehensive Case Review” on all unaccounted for service members from the Vietnam War. To complete this a case summary or what is now referred to as a scrub was created. One of the scrubs we looked at dealt with the downing of a Navy aircraft manned by then LCDR Eugene “Red” McDaniel and Lt. Kelly Patterson. Take note of the sentence “SAR eforts were terminated without success and LT Patterson and LCDR McDaniel were placed in a POW status.” Not Missing/Captured or MIA/C but “in a POW status.”

In DPMO’s own words:

View full summary on Kelly Patterson at www.nationalalliance.org/powstatus/kelly.pdf

The Lao Discrepancy List prepared in the early 1990's clearly describes a status of POW as “a specific group of individuals who, during the Vietnam War, were classified by their commanding officer and Service Secretaries as POW’s.....”

Full text of the Lao Discrepancy list may be found at www.nationalalliance.org/powstatus/lao.pdf

Note: to read pdf files you must have Adobe Acrobate Reader that is a free download at www.adobe.com

Nowhere in the massive amounts of documentation reviewed did we find a single reference to a combined designation of Missing/Captured or MIA/C. We did find references to “Captured” in some records but those records also contained references to a PW status.

As Scott Speicher was the first Service Member designated with the ambiguous designation of Missing/Captured, we thought we should take a look at how captured Gulf War I Service Members, in Iraqi hands, were designated. Due to the high (Thank God) return rate of captured service members we have no government documentation to present.

For our purposes we have to rely on the reporting of The New York Times (see right) and Washington Post (below) for our information.

According to a Jan. 29, 1991 Washington Post article:

“The Defense Department changed the classification of seven U.S. fliers captured by Iraq from "missing in action" to "prisoner of war" yesterday, although it has not been formally informed of their detainment by Iraq as called for under the Geneva Conventions.....”

“....Under the Geneva Conventions, which outline international standards for treatment of captured enemy troops in wartime, nations holding prisoners are obligated to formally report their identities to the International Committee of the Red Cross through the use of the "capture card system," Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said yesterday. "We're not going to get those, it would appear," he said.”

Under Pentagon regulations, each service also has the prerogative to unilaterally classify its missing personnel as prisoners of war if it can independently determine they are prisoners, said a military official who tracks Vietnam War and Persian Gulf War MIA/POW issues.”

"It became simply a matter of common sense" to reclassify the fliers, Williams said. "I think we just have to follow logic, and their colleagues who have served with them have seen these videotapes; their families have seen the videotapes; there's ample reason to believe that these are in fact those individuals."

"....During the Vietnam War, the Pentagon refused to immediately reclassify some military personnel it knew were being held as prisoners because it wanted to hold Vietnam accountable to terms of the Geneva Conventions, the military official said.....” The full text of the article may be found at www.nationalalliance.org/powstatus/wpost.htm

Men shot down and captured the same time as Scott Speicher were Prisoners of War. Yet, Speicher is classified MIA/C or Missing/Captured. The only difference between Scott Speicher and the 7 designated POW is 11 years.

That is why Navy Secretary England wrote: “If the government of Iraq is holding Captain Speicher, he is entitled to Prisoner of War status under international law and the Geneva Convention and would have been entitled to such status from the day he first came under Iraqi control. Although the controlling missing persons statute and directives do not use the term Prisoner of War the facts supporting a change in Captain Speicher’s category from Missing in Action to Missing/Captured would also support the conclusion that if alive, he is a Prisoner of War.”

What about Staff Sgts. Andrew Ramirez, Christopher Stone, and Spc. Steven Gonzales captured in March 1999 during hostilities in Yugoslavia? Were they POWs?

 Let’s look at an Associated Press article, published April 2, 1999, by Laurie Asseo.

“.... Treatment of prisoners of war is governed by the Geneva convention of 1949, signed by both the United States and Yugoslavia. Among other things, the treaty says the only information captured soldiers must provide is name, rank, serial number and date of birth. “

"POW status is what is required under the circumstances," said Robert K. Goldman, an American University law professor. "If these people are mistreated, those who order the mistreatment and carry it out ... could be treated as war criminals."

“Ruth Wedgwood, a senior fellow for the Council on Foreign Relations, said Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic "is a damn fool if he mistreats them."

“President Clinton and Defense Secretary William Cohen initially avoided referring to the three men as war prisoners, instead saying that they were illegally abducted. Later yesterday, however, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said, "We consider them to be prisoners of war and covered by the Geneva Convention."

“...... The 1949 Geneva convention is one of a series of international humanitarian treaties dating back to 1864. It applies in cases of "armed conflict" as well as when war has been declared. Under the treaty, captured soldiers "must at all times be humanely treated." They cannot be mutilated, used as human shields or subjected to public humiliation. They also cannot be put on trial for engaging in ordinary acts of warfare for which the capturing country's own soldiers would not be charged.”

“ Charlotte Ku of the American Society of International Law said there was little doubt the U.S. soldiers would be entitled to prisoner of war status and therefore to the Geneva convention's protections.” Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic told the BBC the U.S. soldiers would be treated in compliance with the Geneva convention. But Yugoslavia also said the soldiers would face criminal trial before a military court today.”

“If the United States had continued to assert that the men were captured illegally, their level of protection under international law would have been murkier. Some international law experts said an argument could be made for protection under customary international law.”

“But Wedgwood said that outside of the Geneva convention, "You don't have a comfortable text to point to."

View at www.nationalalliance.org/powstatus/ap.htm

Now, for what may be our very favorite documents. These, for the skeptics, may be the definitive proof of the existence of a ‘domestic” Prisoner of War status.

All of us are familiar with the efforts of Bob Dumas, to bring his brother Roger home. During his 50+ year struggle, Bob has taken a number of legal actions. One of the results of his actions was a change in status for Roger Dumas.

On 11 Sept. 1984 the Dept. of Army issued a “Certificate” stating Korean War POW Roger Dumas was "carried in the status of Prisoner of War."

In 1992, under Title 10 U.S. Code 1552 for correction of records, a corrected DD 1300 "Report of Casualty" was issued for Roger Dumas. The document clearly states that Roger Dumas from 4 November 1950 - 26 February 1954 was "in a Prisoner of War status." Would the incorrect record be corrected incorrectly, by using an official status that didn't exist.

 DPMO would like us to believe that once a service member is captured the designation from the US Government is and always has been Missing/Captured. The documents presented and the many, many others we reviewed prove otherwise.

With all the documentation, and this is but the tip of the iceberg, are we really supposed to believe there never was a “domestic” POW designation and no service member was ever given a “domestic” status of Prisoner of War.

Be it U.S. Code, Controlling Directive or Policy, the Prisoner of War designation existed and was used by the Dept of Defense, and the Military Services.

It is not used today, and that is why we, along with Rolling Thunder® National Inc and Carry the Flame are pushing a Petition Drive calling upon the President and Congress to “direct the Department of Defense to recognize and designate as “Prisoner of War” (POW) not “Missing/Captured” (MIA-C) any member of the U.S. Armed Forces, paramilitary, militia, U.S. citizens employed by a U.S. agency or under U.S. Government contract who are captured and held against his/her will . . . ”

The petition concludes; “To ensure that the classification of U.S. Military and Civilian Personnel is not inferior to that provided for under the Geneva Conventions, we ask that you direct the Department of Defense to eliminate the designation Missing-Captured and reinstate the designation “Prisoner of War.”

For copies of the petition visit: www.nationalalliance.org and click Petition Drive.

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National Alliance of Families 16^th Annual Forum is scheduled for June 16th - 18th, 2005. 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 briefing. 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 we will meet at the Crowne Plaza Hotel located at 1489 Jefferson Davis Highway. The Crowne Plaza is a short walk from the Doubletree Hotel, site of the government briefings. Room rates for the Alliance is $109.00 per night plus tax. Parking is $7.00 per day. Call 1-800-2CROWNE. The deadline for reservations is May 20^th.

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.