Expressing the thanks of the House of Representatives and the Nation for the contributions to freedom made by American POW/MIAs on National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 771.

As we remember our POW and MIAs, I want to share with my colleagues the text of a speech I recently delivered to a conference in Honolulu sponsored by the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies and the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO). At this conference were representatives from our own country as well as five countries of Asia, including Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.

Mr. Speaker, I urge swift passage of this important resolution and continued strong Congressional support for the DPMO.

U.S. POW/MIA Accounting Efforts: Process and Operations, August 11,

2004

Thank you, Department of Defense Assistant Secretary

Jennings, for your very kind introduction.

Thank you also to Dr. Whitley, General Stackpole (who has

contributed so much to Hawaii), and General Whitfield, or

``Q,'' the Commander of our Joint Personnel Operating

Command, located just down the road.

And please allow me to introduce my wife, Audrey, and my

staff assistant, Jackie Conant, both of whose ancestral

roots, like so many of Hawaii's people, lie with you in Asia.

But most of all, Mingalar Par, Zdravstvuite, and Chao ong,

or Aloha! Welcome to Hawaii, and Mahalo!, or thank you, to

each of you for joining us at this vitally important

conference this week, Your simple presence tells the people

of my country everything about the commitment of your

countries and peoples to assisting us all in finding,

identifying and repatriating the sailors, soldiers, marines,

airmen and civilians of our country currently unaccounted for

throughout Asia.

I am Ed Case and I am a Member of the Congress of the

United States, I directly represent 650,000 Americans living

in Hawaii's great Second District, which includes all eight

of Hawaii's major islands, as well as the Northwestern

Hawaiian Islands all the way past Midway Island to Kure

Atoll.

Under our system of governance, we have three separate,

independent and coequal branches of federal government: our

executive branch, headed by our President; our legislative

branch, made up of me and my colleagues in congress; and our

judicial branch, headed by our Supreme Court. From beyond our

shores, it often looks like a pretty messy system, as we

argue and disagree in public over what we should do and not

do, and as we contest elections for our presidency and for

Congress.

Many of our deepest disagreements and our elections have

been and are about whether and under what circumstances we

should have taken or we should take military action beyond

our shores, as was the case with what we refer to as the

Korean and Vietnam Wars and as is the case today in Iraq, and

I recognize with you tonight as citizens of our world the

terrible personal and national tragedies of those and other

hostilities and pay homage to the fallen whoever they were.

But if I can leave you with one and only one message tonight,

it is this: in our country, we are one in our commitment to

find and bring home our missing.

I came of age during the time of Vietnam in a small

community on my home Island of Hawaii. Robbie Peacock was a

handsome and well-liked boy, also from that island, who

graduated some years ahead of me, went off to college,

enlisted as a pilot, and was sent to Asia. His plane

disappeared on a mission and his remains have thus far not

been found. His mother has passed away and his father grieves

for him still. But, far worse, is that for almost 35 years

they have had no finality, no resolution.

I represent Ms. Michie Sasaki in Congress. Her brother,

Private First Class Takeshi Sasaki, went missing in Korea on

April 25, 1951. At the end of 1953, his status was amended to

``Missing in Action and Presumed Dead.''

Fifty years later, Ms Sasaki, along with her sisters,

traveled to Washington DC to attend the 2004 Annual Korean

War/Cold War Government Briefings sponsored by Secretary

Jennings and our Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel

Office. Over 500 individuals representing 225 loss cases

attended the briefings. There weren't just sister or brothers

of those missing in attendance, but nieces and nephews, sons

and daughters, and even some grandsons and granddaughters.

Some 89,000 Americans are still unaccounted for on the

world's battlefields since World War II, including 6,000

Korea and 2,000 Vietnam. 73 of Hawaii's own are missing in

Korea and 12 in Vietnam.

Here's the point: our missing touch each of us, personally,

in our homes, our families and our memories. We have not

forgotten them, we all seek resolution, and we are united in

our efforts.

We know that we are not alone. We know that in the cities

and countrysides of your own countries you have countless

friends and family members similarly unaccounted for. We know

that you and yours also feel still not only your losses but

the lack of resolution. We must help each other.

The endeavors of people like Secretary Jennings, General

Whitfield, the individuals at the Defense Prisoner of War/

Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) and Joint Personnel

Accounting Command (JPAC), and the 600 Americans working

fulltime worldwide to account for our missing is one of our

most important missions. From your country, I salute you all.

And I thank our foreign visitors for your efforts thus far.

You can't imagine the effect even today up Americans like

Michie Sasaki when they read a headline such as that of a few

weeks ago, ``U.S. POW/MIA Official Breakthrough in Vietnam,''

reporting that joint operations will soon resume in the

Central Highlands of Vietnam. Congratulations to Secretary

Jennings and the representatives of Vietnam for your mutual

advancement of our mutual effort.

So, as you all complete your vital work this week and

return to your homes, please take with you these thoughts.

First, for our country, our commitment to accounting for our

missing rises above any internal disagreements; we all want

to finish this mission, and all branches of our government

are united behind and supportive of the efforts of DMPO and

others in our focus on doing so. And second, we want to help

you do the same, for our interests are mutual and exist

notwithstanding the borders within which we live and the

nature of our past, present or future relations.

Perhaps in our joint efforts on this purely humanitarian

cause lie the roots of true peace in our world. Mahalo, and

aloha!

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 771) expressing the thanks of the House of Representatives and the Nation for the contributions to freedom made by American POW/MIAs on National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on the resolution under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today in support of H. Res. 771, a resolution that recognizes the sacrifices made by prisoners of war and missing in action on National POW/MIA Recognition Day. The resolution is very straightforward and my colleague from Georgia (Mr. Collins) and I are seeking to give proper acknowledgment to National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

Today, nearly 50,000 former American prisoners of war are living in the United States. These are family members, these are friends and neighbors, men and women who fought for our freedom and often suffered tremendous hardship during their detention. Today, we send a message from this Capitol that their contribution to the great story of America's freedom is not forgotten.

Since World War II, more than 88,000 members of the Armed Forces remain unaccounted for. Today we offer our sympathies to the families of these soldiers, sailors, airmen and women and Marines missing in action. Their family members are our family members, they are our friends and our neighbors, and they wait patiently for their loved ones to be recovered and returned home for a proper burial. It is hard for those of us who have not suffered or endured this type of hardship to imagine how these families deal with their grief. Again today, we pause to say that on behalf of the Congress and the American people, thank you. Thank you very much.

This legislation also recognizes that National POW/MIA Recognition Day is one of the six days specified by law on which the POW/MIA flag is to be flown over specified Federal facilities and national cemeteries. Flying this flag is a visible reminder of the sacrifices of our POWs and MIAs.

As many of my colleagues know, the recovery of MIAs has long been a passion of mine. In April of last year, I left the U.S. for Vietnam in the hopes of finding the remains of American soldiers still missing after nearly 30 years in the Vietnam War. Specifically, my hope was to recover the remains of Captain Arnold Holm of Waterford, Connecticut, whose helicopter was shot down over Vietnam in 1972. I met his widow several years ago and learned that for 30 years she had not had a funeral ceremony or a memorial service because she held out the hope that her husband's remains would be found and that he would be brought back home to Waterford, Connecticut.

This trip was the first time that I had been back to Vietnam in almost 30 years, having served there in the U.S. Army in the 1960s and in the CIA in the 1970s.

I spent 2 days with American and Vietnamese officers, with the joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in the jungles near Hue, Vietnam. We recovered watches, boots, and other assorted items. But we were unable to recover the crash site or the remains of Captain Holm. This was an emotional mission for me, for my family, for the family of Captain Holm, and for his friends. And this mission continues. We will continue to search for the remains of our missing.

Several families in Connecticut have been blessed with the recovery of the remains of their loved ones, and this would include Robert Bush of Hamden; Legrande Cole of Danbury; Crosley Fitton of Hartford; Irwin Lerner of Stratford; Richard Rich of Stamford; John Brooks Sherman of Darien; Larry Thorne of Norwalk; and from my own district, Peter McCarthur Cleary of Colchester, Connecticut, whose remains were identified February of 2002.

Every day that the POW/MIA flag flies over the Rotunda of this Capitol it is an important reminder to Members, staff, and visitors of the sacrifice made by American prisoners of war and the missing in action. However, on this important day, that flag also flies over the dome of our Capitol, an important reminder to the world that today we pause to commemorate National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins), fellow co-sponsor of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

In closing, I would simply like to echo the comments of the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins) in thanking the National League of Families for their work and for their faith in the fact that we will be able to locate the remains of their loved ones, wherever they may be around the world.

Specifically talking about Vietnam, I would also like to share with my colleagues that these recovery efforts that are ongoing jointly between officials of the United States of America and the Vietnamese Government are not safe. They are difficult projects to conduct.

In April of 2001, a helicopter that was carrying officials from both companies crashed, killing seven Americans and seven Vietnamese. But I think that we can gather hope from the fact that this joint effort between our two countries is going forward. And for whatever wounds remain from that war, they will be bound up and healed by this humanitarian effort to locate the remains and recover the remains of both Americans and Vietnamese missing in action.

Again, in conclusion, on behalf of this Congress, I thank all of those men and women who have offered their lives in defense of the freedom and democracy that we enjoy, and in particular, for those families who have loved ones as yet unrecovered, we thank them for their service, their sacrifice, and their suffering.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 771 and commend the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Simmons) for presenting this bill to the House today.

The intent of this legislation, the intent of the country, is to honor the 50,000 former POWs and the 88,000 still missing in action, U.S. service people that have served this country so well and so honorably.

Yesterday was National POW/MIA Recognition Day, in which once a year we formally remember these very important people. It is such a tremendous honor to serve in the Congress and to represent Arkansas, but one of the great honors is the opportunity to meet such wonderful and great people. A person I recently met from Saline County, Bill McGinley, is the only person I had ever met who was presented the Purple Heart posthumously, and I got to talk to him about that experience.

How does that happen? On January 29, 1944, he was in a bomber and was flying over Belgium. In fact, the actor Jimmy Stewart was the squadron commander. Their plane was shot up. He and another man had to bail out, and he spent the next 9 months hiding out, helped by a family in Belgium that hid him. His family was first notified that he was missing, and he has this wonderful scrapbook that he shows me, the

newspaper articles and the letters; and it goes through the progression of the notification from the War Department that he was missing and then the letter from his Congressman that they were sad to report that he was missing. And finally came the notice that he was presumed dead, and then the letter from the Member of Congress expressing great sorrow that he was presumed dead. And at some point his family was presented with a Purple Heart. And, of course, this story ended happily because 9 months later he was found by allied troops and his family was notified that he was alive and well.

Not all of these stories end happily. And like the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Simmons), it was my honor in November of 2000 to go back to Vietnam and to spend time with two sons, Dan and David Evert. Their father was Captain Lawrence Evert, and he was shot down in 1967 in an F-105 and was presumed dead. There was really not much doubt about the possibility of his being alive since people had seen a fireball when his plane went down. But these two young boys, now grown men, told a story of how, when they were youngsters, they would wear the bracelet in honor of their dad, and they would tell stories of how they dreamed of growing up and getting big enough that they could go to North Vietnam and rescue their dad.

It was very moving to be out at the site of the excavation of this plane where remains were discovered, and with the two sons. President Clinton was there. It was a very formal and sobering ceremony. The two sons had gone there the day before by themselves, and they had a little ceremony where they buried somewhere on the site the bracelet that they wore in honor of their dad for all those many years.

And, of course, we remember our POWs and the tremendous suffering that many of them went through, the uncertainty that their families thought and knew about what was going on in their life, and the legacy that they still carry with them today of being separated from not only their family but from their country for so long a time.

And, finally, Mr. Speaker, we remember today all of our troops, all of our men and women serving in uniform; and we particularly remember the 150,000 serving in Iraq and Afghanistan that know that they are always at risk of becoming missing or a POW and who work so hard at doing right by their country, serving their country honorably and carrying out the foreign policy of this country so well.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans).

(Mr. EVANS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I appreciate once again the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Simmons) presenting this House resolution to the Congress, to the floor; and I support it and urge all Members to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Simmons) for introducing this resolution and helping to work it through the channels to make sure that we could get it to the floor today.

H.R. 771 pays recognition and says thanks and gratitude to the prisoners of war and to the families of the missing in action who have contributed quite a bit, many paid the ultimate price, so that we could enjoy the freedoms that we enjoy today. I would like to also pay tribute to the National League of Families, those who have insisted and worked and tried to bring to a closure missing in action from Vietnam and to discover all of the information that possibly could be found and also help with our missing in action from other wars.

Under the leadership of the president of the National League of Families is Jo Anne Shirley from Dalton, Georgia; the executive director in Washington, Ms. Ann Griffith. I have visited with them a number of times, and they never quit. They do not know when the end of the day comes because they are constantly working, trying to find and discover remains of our missing in action, particularly those from Vietnam.

One has to look no further than right here in this Chamber at one of our colleagues to see what it cost many to be prisoners of war. The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sam Johnson), shake his hand and one will see some of the results of brutality that he went through as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for 6\1/2\ years. Watch him as he walks, his back, as he was injured in the ejection from his aircraft after being shot down over Hanoi and went without medical service for months and months. One of thousands of people like the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sam Johnson) who has suffered at the hands of the enemy, his captors.

I recommend that my colleagues get the gentleman's book and read it, ``Captive Warriors.'' It will give them a lot of information and insight from someone who has been there and served as a POW. And his wife and the wives of many of our POWs who insisted that contact be made while they were captive, insisted that our government continue to search and to try to reach out to find out more information on our POWs.

And I go back to the family members of the National League of Families who insist today that the Vietnamese Government extend more information and extend a helping hand. Oftentimes that helping hand has not come forth. In my opinion, they have been very lax. They have not done the things that they could have done in Vietnam. I have made trips there myself, seeking information, only to be disappointed in the results that we received while we were there, the lack of information that we received while there. But, hopefully, the rewards from those trips will come at a later date.

We still have some 1,850-plus who are missing in action from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. We do have a U.S./Russian Commission that was established to help to try to find and discover more information about the remains of those from the Vietnam War. Hopefully, that commission will be able to make some good reports back, and, again, that comes at the dedication of the National League of Families.

But there were other wars. Thousands are still missing from World War II, Korea. I remember as a young boy growing up in rural Georgia, an aunt of mine who talked about her brother who served in Korea, missing in action, never heard from him to this day. He has never been heard from or any remains or any information given on her brother.

May we never forget, Mr. Speaker, may we never forget the service, the dedication, the patriotism of those who served and those who have been captured and the families of those who have been missing; and may we always extend all efforts to find those and never leave one behind, to see that they are returned to this soil, to their families.

Yes, we owe a lot to our service personnel throughout the history of this country. We owe a lot to our POWs and our MIAs. God be with their souls and may God continue to bless the United States of America for patriots like those who have served as POWs and those who are missing in action.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 771, expressing the thanks of the House of Representatives and the Nation for the contributions to freedom made by American POW/MIAs on National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

Today we honor the sacrifices made by POW/MIAs and remember our brave men and women in uniform whose fate remains unknown. We owe these heroes more than we could ever repay through mere words for what they have done for our country. However, with National POW/MIA Recognition Day and this resolution, we remind all Americans to keep their memory close in our minds and hearts.

Mr. Speaker, as a Vietnam veteran, I have witnessed firsthand the heroism of America's soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines in combat. May we never forget those who were held as POWs in defense of our country, and those who paid the ultimate price for America and are still missing in action. In their memory, and on behalf of the families of all MIAs, may we also renew and strengthen our dedication to bringing those missing in action home at long last. I proudly fly the POW/MIA flag in both of my congressional offices and I encourage my colleagues, and all Americans, to do the same.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to join me in honoring our Nation's POW/MIA heroes by supporting the passage of this very important legislation.