New DASD - President Bush appointed Ambassador Charles Ray to fill the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs. We wish Ambassador Ray well in his new position.

POW/MIA Recognition Day - September 15th veterans and concerned citizens nationwide paused to remember our POWs and MIAs from World War II, Korea, the Cold War, Vietnam and our two Gulf Wars. In reviewing media coverage, this year we found few articles that made specific reference to either Navy Capt. Scott Speicher and Army Sgt. Matt Maupin. This is a sampling of what we found:

From The American Forces Press Service by Donna Miles - "Navy Capt. Scott Speicher, a Gulf War pilot, remains missing since his plane was shot down in Iraq in January 1991. Army Reserve Sgt. Keith "Matt" Maupin is the only U.S. servicemember missing in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Insurgents captured Maupin April 9, 2004, after his fuel convoy came under attack at Baghdad International Airport."

From The Journal News by Bill Hughes – "One service member is listed as missing in action from the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and Ohio resident Keith "Matt" Maupin remains the only missing serviceman from the current Operation Iraqi Freedom."

From NewJersey.com by Oshrat Carmiel – "By the Pentagon's tally, the unaccounted for include 8,100 servicemen from the Korean War; 1,801 servicemen from the Vietnam War; 78,000 from World War II; one serviceman from the Persian Gulf War and one, Sgt. Matt Maupin of Ohio, who is still missing from the current war in Iraq."

Is there anyone out there, besides the bureaucrats at the Department of Defense who do not grasp the concept that this man is a Prisoner of War, or that Scott Speicher is a Prisoner of War.

U.S. Government Gave Viet Cong Prisoners Higher Status Than Speicher and Maupin – For more that five years we have been writing about the fact that the use of the designation/status Prisoner of War had been eliminated from the most recent (December 2000) Controlling Directive. First we were told that the POW designation had not been eliminated. However, it didn't apply to then PFC Maupin, as he was captured by insurgents. We pointed out that the Viet Cong were an insurgency. Yet, service members captured by the Viet Cong were considered POWs.

We asked DPMO for a copy of the Directive that provided a POW designation for captured service personnel. We were told it would be forthcoming. We were told it was in the mail. Then we were told it didn't exist.

We asked why Scott Speicher who was captured by the recognized Army of a recognized government was not designated POW. We pressed and we pressed. Then finally we were told that the United States Government never had a POW designation. POW was an international designation provided by the Geneva Conventions to captured service personnel. The domenstic designation for captured service personnel is, was and always had been "Missing/Captured."

We acknowledged that documents in individual case files, on occasion, used the word "captured." However, we had never seen a document referring to a captured service member as "Missing/Captured." In our May 5th 2005 edition of Bits, (www.nationalalliance.org/naf2005/050507.htm ) we provided page after page of official government documents showing the use of the designation/status Prisoner of War (POW.)

We challenged DPMO to produce one document from available case files using the designation "Missing/Captured." To date, none has been produced. We've discussed and debated the point privately with more than one DPMO official. In our most recent conversation, the conversation boiled down to..... "the lawyers... the lawyers...."

You probably never heard of Major General George S. Prugh, Jr., USA Ret. He passed away this past July at the age of 86. In an article on his passing, Rachel Gordon of the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote: [Begin excerpt] "Retired Army Maj. Gen. George S. Prugh Jr., a Bay Area resident who was credited with helping to save the lives of American prisoners of war in Vietnam, died July 6 at the age of 86."

"Maj. Gen. Prugh, in his role as an Army lawyer, persuaded the South Vietnamese ambassador to grant POW status to Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers during the Vietnam War. The U.S.-backed designation gave the enemy combatants international protections and set humane standards for their treatment under the Geneva Conventions."

"Prugh realized that if the South Vietnamese continued to treat the Viet Cong as criminals and dealt with them in their own way that there was no way the captured Americans would survive,'' said retired Col. Fred Borch, a historian with the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps, the legal arm of the service." [End Excerpt]

No uniforms, no recognized government, no country, yet American service members captured by the Viet Cong were recognized as Prisoner of War.

No uniforms, no recognized government, no country, yet members of Viet Cong captured by both U.S. and South Vietnamese forces were recognized as Prisoners of War.

Today, Scott Speicher captured by a recognized army of a recognized government, and Matt Maupin captured by an insurgency not unlike the Viet Cong are listed as "Missing/Captured."

The National Alliance of Families continues to maintain its opposition to the use of the ambigious designation of "Missing/Captured" for servicemember who like Speicher and Maupin are clearly Prisoners of War.

We realize our enemies violate the rules of international law and the Geneva Conventions regarding the care and treatment of captured American Service Personnel. Termonology will not change that. Termonology does change world perception regarding the value we place on our captured personnel. In the eyes of the enemy, doesn't it downgrade the worth of a battered American service member displayed on television worldwide for the Dept. of Defense to designate him or her "Missing/Captured" rather than Prisoner of War?

One of the things that surprised us most about the composition of Sedgwick Tourison's list of New POW Cases was the number of crossovers from the Project X study. For our reader who may not be familiar with Project X, it was a study initiated by the Joint Casualty Resolution Center in 1975 and completed in 1976. Its purpose was to "evaluate the possibility of any of the unaccounted for being alive"

The study concluded: "There is a possibility as many as 57 Americans could be alive, although it is highly probable that the number is much smaller, possibly zero." An addendum to the Project X cover letter included a summary of each case. Within that case summary is a listing of intelligence reports used in the Project X evaluation. We have long been convinced that there was more intelligence reporting used in the Project X evaluations than was cited in the study. In some cases we have located some of that unnamed intelligence reporting.

Of the 19 New POW Cases named in the Tourison memo of August 1, 1992, ten are named in the Project X study. They are Robert Greer, Fred Schreckengost, Fredric Mellor, Gregory Harris, John O'Grady, Paul Hasenbeck, Thomas Mangino, Daniel Nidds, David Winters, and John McDonnell. Of these ten, only Greer and Schreckengost are considered remains returned and identified.

Today, we are going to take a quick look at the case of Fredric Mellor. The following is excerpted from the Project X Case Summary:

"1. On 13 August 1965 Capt Frederick M. Mellor departed Udorn RTAFB in an RF101, (#56-0186), as the flight leader of a flight of two aircraft to conduct photo and visual reconnaissance of a suspected surface-to-air missile (SAM) site in North Vietnam. During the flight over the target area Capt Mellor's aircraft was damaged by hostile ground fire. His radio became inoperative and the wingman noticed a fire in the nose wheel-well area of the flight leader's aircraft. Capt Mellor, using hand signals, instructed his wingman to assume the lead. The wingman did assume the lead and noticed that Capt Mellor was in a good close, wing position for weather penetration; the weather was very poor with layered clouds from the ground to 35,000 feet.

2. After a short time in the lead position, the wingman turned to check the damaged aircraft, and it was missing. An immediate search was begun, but Capt Mellor could not be found. Search and rescue facilities were alerted, and additional RF101 pilots established radio beeper signals and voice contact with Capt Mellor. Capt Mellor indicated that he was all right and that the search aircraft had flown right over him. On the first search the helicopters were unable to locate Capt Mellor. On the second search one of the RF101 pilots who had made the radio contact with Capt Mellor on the ground went along in the backseat of an AlE. On this search a strong beeper was heard. Capt Mellor was instructed not to give his position away; to turn his beeper off; and to await helicopter pick up. When the helicopter was two miles away, broadcast instructions were given to Capt Mellor to throw out flares for marking the pick-up point. No flares were seen and no further contact was made with Capt Mellor. Search was continued until darkness that day, (3 August), and for the next two days an expanded area was searched but Capt Mellor could not be found. (Ref 1)"[End Project X Excerpt]

By now, we are all familiar with the wording of Tourison's August 1, 1992 memo which referred to the 19 men named as "individuals DOD now has information survived into captivity." In a breakdown of the 19 names, Tourison referred to Fredric Mellor as having "died in captivity of wounds suffered in combat." Yet, the Project X Study stated Mellor was in voice contact with Search and Rescue and "indicated that he was all right."

Was Mellor injured during an attempt to evade capture? Or, were the wounds suffered in combat simply a Vietnamese excuse to account for Capt. Mellor under the "Kerry Method" which only required a Vietnamese witness and a lost grave site.

No doubt Capt. Mellor was buried in a grave that was disturbed by animals, buried on a sandbar and lost due to flooding, buried in a flooded field or destroyed by U.S. bombing. We recently found a notation in the case summary of Navy Lt. Kelly Patterson discussing the mounting number of lost graves. Expressing his frustration with the Vietnamese over the failure to identify a grave site for Patterson, one analyst wrote: "In numerous recent reports the VNOSMP (Vietnamese Office Seeking Missing Persons) have stated that graves containing remains of U.S. personnel have been destroyed by wild beasts, natural calamities, reforming of the terrain, and U.S. bombings. The mounting incidence of such alleged loss of graves borders on the incredible. This report contains still another such claim."

The 19 individuals named in the Tourison Memo were all part of the Senate Select Committees 135 Last Known Alive Cases. However, we have been unable to find any public mention, in the Committee report, that the Vietnamese acknowledged these individuals "survived into captivity." This leaves us with a glaring unanswered question. Tourison wrote his memo of August 1 1992, along with a letter calling for a change in status from MIA to POW for the 19 named in his memo. He recommended the letter signed by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Bob Smith (R-NH) as Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively. The memo was sent to the committees Staff Director Frances Zwenig. This leaves us with several glaring unanswered questions.

What happened to the Tourison Memo once it reached Zwenig's desk? Was it forwarded to Senators Kerry and Smith? Was the letter, as written by Mr. Tourison, ever sent? If it was sent, why wasn't it acted upon? If it wasn't sent, why? In the published report of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, Frances Zwenig is acknowledged as having "presided over the full range of passions on this issue, coordinating divergent and ultimately tenuous views much of the credit for the consensus in this report."

One of those passions was Ms. Zwenig's deep commitment to establishing trade and diplomatic relations with Vietnam. Shortly after the committee concluded its work, Ms Zwenig took a position as Vice President of the U.S./Vietnam Trade Council lobbying for the lifting of the trade embargo against Vietnam and the establishment of diplomatic relations with Vietnam. We're sure Ms. Zwenig's efforts were made easier by the conclusions of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affair..... conclusion she helped form. We are also sure the push toward trade and normalization would have come to a screeching halt were it known that the Vietnamese now acknowledged 17 individuals as "survived into captivity" but had not accounted for them.

Perhaps that is why Senator Kerry participated in the Hanoi dog and pony show, which "accounted" for Hasenbeck, Mangino, Winters and Nidd. Witness after witness told how the four were ambushed and immediately killed and buried. This in spite of the fact that the Vietnamese government had acknowledged the four "survived into captivity."

We leave you with this question.... are the 19 New POWs named in the Tourison Memo the only individuals acknowledged as captured by the Vietnamese?

After our last newsletter, we received the following email from one family member stating: "In the National Alliance of Families Bits N Pieces, there is usually a line stating:

"Why Does Johnie Webb Still Have His Job?" After this last Bits N Pieces, I think we should make a point of adding,

"Why Does John Kerry Still Have a Job?"

Our New Ally in the War on Terror.... Vietnam – from the Deutsche Presse Agentur, Sept. 7, 2006 - "Hanoi- US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson thanked Vietnam's prime minister Thursday for "cooperation" on requests to close down Vietnamese bank accounts controlled by North Korea. Paulson did not elaborate if the reported North Korean accounts, which would help fund the regime of totalitarian leader Kim Jong Il, had already been closed."

"Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation finance ministers meeting in Hanoi, he said he was "very pleased for their co-operation, with the Vietnamese efforts in keeping their banking system free of abuse by North Koreans or other would-be miscreants."

"... In July, the US undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Stuart Levey, visited Vietnam to discuss the reported opening of 10 bank accounts by North Korea in the country."

"....The governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, Le Duc Thuy, later told journalists that he had instructed Vietnamese commercial banks to check whether they had any bank accounts controlled by North Korean interests and to immediately close any that they found....."

One can only hope that Vietnamese "cooperation" in this matter is more concrete than Vietnamese "cooperation" on the POW/MIA issue.