To All in the Gulf Coast Region Especially Our POW/MIA Family Members and Good Friends, You Are in Our Thoughts and Prayers – We’ve heard, via Roger Hall, that our good friend SAR Poet Marsha Burks Megehee is safe. As is Jean and Charlie Ray, parents of POW Jimmy Ray. The Rays are safe in Houston Texas and will be relocating to Washington State to be near their granddaughter. We thank Marcia Cummings Shepard for the updates on Jean and Charlie.

As Many of You Know by Now – the National Alliance of Families lost a dear friend and supporter with the passing of J. David “Dave” Murray, this past August. Dave will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery on 26 September 2005. Those wishing to attend should meet at the administration building at 0930 and then proceed to the grave as Mass of the Resurrection has already been said. Anyone wishing to attend the internment should contact Steve Golding at steveg@nyct.net

Saddam’s Iraqi's Know What Happened to Speicher – That's the conclusion of the review conducted, by the Navy, into the case of Capt. Scott Speicher. Speicher was shot down on January 16, 1991, on the first night of the first Gulf War. Originally declared Killed in Action (KIA), his status was changed to Missing in Action (MIA) in October 1996. The next day his status was again changed, back to KIA. In January 2001, his status was again changed to MIA. Finally, in October 2002 his status was changed, once again, from MIA to MIA-C or Missing Captured.

According to a September 8^th Associated Press article, by Robert Burns, the decision to continue Capt. Speicher in the Missing-Captured status was based on the findings “That Captain Speicher likely ejected from the aircraft and may have been captured by Iraqi forces." Also, given that the Iraqi government turned over a flight suit and other items associated with Speicher's aircraft years ago, the board concluded that some members of the former Saddam regime know Speicher's whereabouts.”

The article also stated; “Navy Secretary Gordon England on Wednesday approved the findings and recommendations of a Navy board of inquiry.... The board recommended, and England agreed, that the Pentagon should work with the State Department, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the Iraqi government to ``increase the level of attention and effort inside Iraq'' to resolve the question of Speicher's fate.”

Saddam’s Iraqi's Know What Happened to Speicher – Duh! Perhaps if the Defense POW/MIA Office had not spent so much time dismissing the possibility of Speicher’s survival and captivity, he might have been found by now.

We are reminded of the information provided by a well placed source, we called “Buddy”, provided back in August of 2004. We were told “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. I could go on and on Lynn, but you can see through the smoke and mirrors and the spin - those in

Government who should have led the charge all along to account for Speicher have been swayed by the

naysayers or on their own have come to believe that he died long ago. Don't be misled by those who would pooh pooh the Speicher reporting." Buddy ended his comments saying: "I am not impressed that journalists, members of the DIA team and others reported to be looking for Speicher are busting their buns to do so."

Perhaps with the finding of the Navy Board, those charged with locating Capt. Speicher will start “busting their buns.”

Now vs Then – A reading of the full text of the Associated Press article describes how the Navy Board reviewing the Speicher case made its’ determination to continue Capt. Speicher in the MIA-C category based on one overriding fact.... there was no credible evidence of his death.

Sadly, that didn’t stop the military boards reviewing Vietnam War cases. Men, among them known POWs like David Hrdlicka, and Charles Shelton in Laos, and James McLean and David Demmon in Vietnam, were routinely declared dead with no credible evidence of death.

POW Petition Drive – Signatures are still being gathered 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.”

If it bothers you that every time the media refers to either Capt. Speicher or Sgt. Matt Maupin as Missing-Captured instead of the rightful designation Prisoner of War, then you need to join the POW Petition Drive. Petitions may be downloaded at www.nationalalliance.org.

The Real Reason Recovery Missions in North Korea Stopped – In June of this year we were advised that Recovery Missions in North Korea were halted due to safety concerns for JPAC field teams. One of the reasons cited was the teams inability to maintain contact with U.S. members outside of North Korea. We were perplexed by this as no one had ever objected to this condition before.

Now, based on an information contained in an August 19^th “Inside the Ring” column, written by Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough, and published in the Washington Times , we may have the real reason recovery efforts stopped.

According to Gertz and Scarborough; “The Pentagon recently suspended efforts to recover the remains of U.S. service personnel from North Korea, but not before spending millions that critics say fueled Pyongyang's military. The U.S. Pacific Command stated in May that it halted the search in the communist state for remains of those killed in the Korean War until "after they have created an appropriate environment."

The program was stopped after U.S. military personnel sent their gear to North Korea for the next search effort, and now there are no signs it will be returned. According to military officials, U.S. military commanders opposed the search operations because they were contrary to U.S. strategy toward North Korea. Costs of the operations have been several million dollars a year since 2003, including $2.1 million spent on joint recovery operations that year. "Look at the amount of money we're paying," one official told us. "Are we feeding and caring for the very same troops that we could potentially fight in a future conflict?"

So, what’s the real reason recovery efforts were stopped. Concern over JPAC team safety or the fact that we were feeding and arming a potential enemy, over the objection of Military Commanders? Were we told the truth or were we, once again, lied to?

DPMO the Never-Ending Failure – On August 25^th the General Accounting Office issue a report, to Congress, on its review of the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office. This review was mandated by the 2005 Defense Authorization Act. The report concluded: “DOD has not clarified the precise scope of DPMO's roles and missions. Moreover, the recently issued strategic plan lacks key elements, such as performance metrics and linkages between resources and performance goals. As a result, neither the Secretary of Defense nor the Congress have sufficient knowledge about how DPMO intends to accomplish its current missions or, if it is assigned new missions, how the office intends to apportion its resources. Until a formal needs assessment for DPMO's workload is conducted, Congress and DOD cannot make informed decisions about what level of resources to assign to DPMO or encourage it to assume additional responsibilities, nor can the Secretary of Defense fulfill his statutory responsibility to ensure that DPMO has adequate resources.”

GAO also issued recommendations stating; “that the Secretary of Defense direct the Under Secretary of

Defense for Policy to (1) determine the scope of DPMO's missions and responsibilities, and revise DPMO's charter accordingly; (2) based on the results of this determination, undertake a formal needs assessment of DPMO's workload to determine both what resources are needed and how they can best be allocated among the various mission areas, taking into account how DPMO fits within the overall spectrum of DOD organizations that have accounting or recovery missions; and (3) incorporate that information into a revised strategic plan that links goals and objectives to performance metrics and resource needs.” The full report is available on our web site at www.nationalalliance.org/dpmo/gao.htm

Wouldn’t you think DPMO and the DOD overall should have some idea the scope of the mission by now? No wonder a 1998 report of live Americans in Southeast Asia remains un-investigated. No wonder no one has followed up on the “185 Report.”

Speaking of DPMO Reviews and Investigations – We have no additional information on the current investigation involving Jerry Jennings, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for POW/MIA Affairs, for both abusive management and sexual harassment. In our July 16^th edition we excerpted an Associated Press article outlining the investigation.

We also reminded our readers that Mr. Jennings was forced out of a previous position at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an agency currently in the news and under fire. Jennings failures at FEMA was one of the reasons the National Alliance of Families opposed his appointment as Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs. We shared that information with anyone who would listen. Even after the FEMA revelation, the Alliance remained the ONLY POW/MIA family group to OPPOSE Jenning’s appointment.

In the early 1990's, during Jennings tenure, an internal report by the House Appropriations Committee referred to FEMA as "a political dumping ground filled by the Bush (#41) administration with inexperienced appointees.” The same report referred to FEMA as a “turkey farm.” The report described Jennings as "more interested in the benefits associated with his position and cosmetic changes than FEMA's mission.”

His dismal failure at FEMA obviously qualified Jennings for future government employment. Under Bush #43, Jennings was appointed to head DPMO.

All this prompts us to restate the questions asked in our July 16^th newsletter; Is DPMO the new “political dumping ground, and the “turkey farm” of the Bush #43 Administration? Based on past performance the answer is of course yes. That takes us to the next question..... When does FEMA head Michael Brown move over to DPMO?

Seriously, Jerry Jennings has been a dismal FAILURE at DPMO. His management style is abusive. Good people within DPMO have either transferred out or retired on his watch. It is time that the Bush administration takes a serious look at this office and appoints a DASD qualified to lead and at the same time stand up to the well entrenched establishment that is the day to day management within DPMO.

It is for all these reasons and many more that the National Alliance of Families joined both the Korea Cold War Families of the Missing and the National League of Families in a vote of no confidence on DASD Jennings. It is also the reason that the Alliance expanded its no confidence vote to include DPMO while excluding the Joint Commission Support Directorate (JCSD.) While our vote of no confidence in DASD Jennings has been widely reported our no confidence vote in DPMO, excluding the JCSD has been widely ignored.

One final word about the no confidence votes. They were simply a formality. Anyone who has ever read our newsletter knows all confidence was lost in DPMO, excluding the JCSD a long time ago.

Why does Johnie Webb still have a job?

Why does Jerry Jennings still have a job?

1998.... An extremely credible report.... American MIAs.... being held in Southeast Asia....

1998.... extremely credible... American MIAs.... held in Southeast Asia......

1998.... MIAs.... held in Southeast Asia.....

Ask yourself how many of those MIAs held since 1998 may have died while this credible report sits,

un-investigated, in some DPMO file cabinet?