MIAs - Resource

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Menstuff® has compiled the following information on men who are still Missing in Action (MIAs). This is the resource information for that information.

• 4,500 servicemen were either missing or Prisoner of War after WWI. (Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, 1975)
• World War I - PLEASE NOTE THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE MIAS - ONLY KNOWN CAPTURED

  Captured and Interned 4,120
  Died while POW 147
  Refused Repatriation 0
  Returned to US Military Control 3,973
  Alive as of Jan1, 1998 5
  (Ex-POW Bulletin, February 1998)

• World War II had 406,872 Killed in Action / 78,750 Missing in Action or Prisoners of War. The State Department knew of more than 5,000 American prisoners in the hands of the Soviets and their European satellites. (New York Times, January 5, 1954)
• On May 19, 1945, British Intelligence told U.S. officials that Soviet Marshall Tolbukhin had in his possession at Odessa, nearly 16,000 American and 8,000 British ex-POW's.(National Archive copy of Cable)
• "...a lot of documents that, taken together, indicate that Moscow imprisoned 20,000 or more American and several thousand British soldiers at the end of World War II. The record further shows that U.S. officials knew it and let it happen." (Bill Paul, Wall Street Journal, August 13, 1987. Documents in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. )
• A 1972 Senate Judiciary Committee study on Communist treatment of POW's disclosed that captives freed by the Soviet Union had provided evidence "that several hundred thousand of the missing persons (from WWII) were still being held forced laborers or prisoners" in the 1950's. (Army Times, October 13, 1986)
• World War II - PLEASE NOTE THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE MIAS - ONLY KNOWN CAPTURED
• Does NOT include Merchant Marines - 4,780 MIA, 882 Dead (including 37 POws) and 572 released from captivity. 201 alive as of 01/01/2002.

  Captured and Interned 130,201
  Died while POW 14,072
  Refused Repatriation 0
  Returned to US Military Control 116,129
  Alive as of Jan 1, 1998 52,531
  (Ex-POW Bulletin, February 1998 and 2002)

• Prisoner of War. "Whereas 944 soldiers of the United State are now Prisoners of the Chinese Communist forces in Korea... " (Congressional Record, June 29, 1954, Rep. Thomas O'Neill Jr.)
• "Approximately 78,750 Americans were unaccounted for following World War II... Another 8,177 of our comrades in arms are still missing in action and 389 known prisoners of war unaccounted for nearly 35 years after the end of the Korean Conflict...." (Col. Charles D. Cooper, USAF Ret., "The Stars and Stripes, May 9, 1988)
• KoreamPLEASE NOTE THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE MIAS - ONLY KNOWN CAPTURED

  Captured and Interned 7,140
  Died while POW 2,701
  Refused Repatriation 21
  Returned to US Military Control 4,418
  Alive as of Jan1, 1998 2,814
  (Ex-POW Bulletin, February 1998)

• Vietnam War had 57,685 Killed in Action - at least 2,459 Missing in Action or Prisoner of War.
• Vietnam - PLEASE NOTE THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE MIAS - ONLY KNOWN CAPTURED

  Captured and Interned 772
  Died while POW 144
  Refused Repatriation 0
  Returned to US Military Control 658
  Alive as of Jan1, 1998 625
  (Ex-POW Bulletin, February 1998)

• "The Pentagon lists six prisoners and 311 men missing in Laos, but officials believe that the number of prisoners held by the Pathet Lao guerrillas is substantially higher." (New York Times, 1/29/73)
• "The number of Americans still alive is claimed to be 100-500. There are approximately 2,500 Americans officially acknowledged by our government to be missing or killed in action. There are another 2,000-2,500 men that our government will not admit were lost because they disappeared on secret missions, which helps explain the high number of live sightings of Americans in captivity in Vietnam and Laos even in 1986. (The New American, Yvonne Becker, 7/14/86)
• In 1965, Marine Robert Garwood was captured by the enemy in Vietnam. In October, 1973, he saw 15/20 American POW's. In March, 1975, he saw 20/22 American POW's. In July , 1975, he saw 6 American POW's. In July , 1977, he saw one American POW. In December, 1977, he saw 20/30 American POW's. In December, 1978, he saw 6/7 American POW's. In 1979 Private First Class Robert Garwood, came home after 14 years as a Prisoner of War. He was charged with wartime desertion, enemy collaboration, and other crimes. He was found not guilty on all charges except collaboration. He was not debriefed on his knowledge of LIVE POW's until 1985, six years after coming home. During his trial, his lawyer said "Bobbies biggest crime was that he survived." As it is, Bobby Garwood was a major embarrassment to two government: the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, for their claiming no living Americans remain involuntarily in their country, and to the U.S. for believing them.
• In 1988, a former officer of the Royal Lao Army, stated that he was held captive with Live Americans in 1978 in Laos. Somdee escaped from prison in 1984 and came to the U.S. In 1988, Somdee went before the House Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, where Congressman Stephen Solarz refused to allow him to testify. (U.S. Veteran News and Report, June 29, 1989)
• "Look, the Nation knows they (the POWs)are there, everybody knows they are there, but there's no groundswell of support for getting them out. Certainly you are not suggesting we pay for them, surely not saying we could do any thing like that with no public support?" (William "Bill" Casey, Former Director of the C.I.A., October 7, 1986)
• "I do think there has to be...there have to be live Americans there. (Robert "Bud" McFarlane, Former National Security Advisor to President Reagan, October 9, 1985)
• "I am convinced today that Americans are being held against their will by the Communists in Southeast Asia.....There could be 50-60 in Vietnam, maybe more." (Lt. General Eugene Tighe, former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, During Congressional Testimony.)
• In 1981, just weeks after President Reagan took office, the new administration learned that Vietnam wanted to sell to the U.S., an unspecified number of Live POWs still in Southeast Asia for the sum of $4 billion dollars...it was decided the offer was indeed genuine. (The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, August 19,1986)
• The United States Government recognizes only Col. Charles. E. Shelton, USAF, as a Prisoner of War from the Vietnam War. "...was reported as missing in action on 29 Apr 65. Sufficient evidence was received on 24 May 65 to warrant placing him in a captured status." His "Duty Status", as of 18 Feb 89 was "Active Duty - On Duty", a battle casualty, in a captured status, in Laos. (On October 4, 1990, his wife Marian, committed suicide) (DD Form 1300, Dept. of the Air Force, Report of Casualty)
• A Joint Casualty Resolution Center cable, dated January 1988, states that during the August "Vessey visit to Hanoi, the Vietnamese people were prepared to turn over seven or eight live American P.O.W.'S if Vessey told them what they wanted to hear...all the prospective returnees were allegedly held in a location on the Lao side of the border..."
• A Buddhist Monk, released on January 20, 1989 from captivity in a Vietnamese prison camp, had been held with Live American POW's. He had firsthand knowledge of at least 10 Americans. "Yoshida" is a graduate of Sophia University, one of Tokyo's International Schools. (June 7, 1989, the Reuters Wire Service) American POW cell mates had nursed him to health. (The Washington Post, June 10, 1989)
• Alabama Senator and Ex Prisoner of War, Jeremiah Denton says "The greatest motivation I have for me to believe there are Americans there, is Communist insistence that they are not."
• "...Milliner is [sanitized] and can be brought to the Thai border.... interested in returning him to the US in exchange for a reward" (JCRC cable OCT 89 from Thailand to Hawaii office.)
• A Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Interim Report concluded that despite public assurances in 1973 that no POWs remained in the region, the Defense Department"... in April 1974 concluded beyond a doubt that several hundred American POWs remained in captivity in Southeast Asia..... The executive branch...has profoundly mishandled the POW/MIA problem.... participants in covert actions (now MIA) have never been publicly identified... information reviewed provides enough corroboration to cast doubt on the U.S. G. statement that no evidence exists that Americans are being held against their will... there is insensitivity on the part of the Executive Branch of the U.S.G. in providing complete and accurate information to the next-of-kin..... DOD has allowed its procedures to be dictated by a preconceived policy finding." (October 1990 Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Interim Report on POW/MIAs in Southeast Asia)
• "Last month, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Thach in fact confirmed to the United States that his county still held as many as ten U.S. POW/MIA's. (letter from Senator Jesse Helms to Secretary of State Baker, November 13, 1990)
• Colonel Millard Peck, Chief of the Pentagon's Special Office for Prisoners of War and Missing in Action, resigns in protest of being ordered by policy makers in the POW/MIA Inter-Agency Group not to investigate live-sighting reports of American POWs! (Millard Peck, letter of Resignation, February 1991)
• Senator Bob Smith addresses the Senate and reveals that, of more than 1,400 eyewitness sightings of live POWs, NONE has ever received an on-site investigation! (April 25, 1991):
• The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's concludes that the U.S. has ignored thousands of American POWs, and left them to rot in Soviet slave labor camps and North Korean and Vietnamese prisons. "Any evidence that suggested an MIA might be alive was uniformly and arbitrarily rejected." (May 23, 1991 Examination of U.S. Policy Toward POW/MIAs)
• Summer of 1991: A flood of new evidence of live POWs pours from Southeast Asia: pictures, handwriting samples, hair samples, blood samples, fingerprints, footprints, maps and other physical proof. The Bush administration disregards the evidence and attempts to discredit it by rumor and innuendo. Some of the photos are scientifically validated -- and have never been scientifically disproven! "Until we can account for every person missing, we have to run down these leads to prove that nobody is held." (August 2, 1991: President Bush)
• ... from Garnett E. Bell, chief of the government's POW/MIA office in Hanoi. Asked whether any American POWs or MIAs were alive in Vietnam after Operation Homecoming, Mr. Garnett said yes, perhaps as many as 10. Although the number is much higher (hundreds of airmen lost in Laos never came home), the statement was the first acknowledgment of its kind. (Washington Times, Nov 11, 1991)
• Somalia - PLEASE NOTE THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE MIAS - ONLY KNOWN CAPTURED

  Captured and Interned 1
  Died while POW 0
  Refused Repatriation 0
  Returned to US Military Control 0
  Alive as of Jan1, 1998 1
  (Ex-POW Bulletin, February 1998)

• WASHINGTON -- Somali "entrepreneurs" are holding several US soldiers in Mogadishu and are prepared to "sell them to the highest bidder," senior US officials say...... But at least 6 others are unaccounted for since the raid, in which 12 US personnel were killed and 75 wounded. Administration officials told UPI today that as many as 5 of the missing are "believed to be held" by Somalis with no real connection to Aidid. "We now believe that these entrepreneurs are holding some Americans in hopes they can sell them to the highest bidder," a senior US official monitoring the situation closely said under condition of anonymity. (PRODIGY October 08, 93)
• Persian Gulf - PLEASE NOTE THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE MIAS - ONLY KNOWN CAPTURED

  Captured and Interned 23
  Died while POW 0
  Refused Repatriation 0
  Returned to US Military Control 23
  Alive as of Jan1, 1998 23
  (Ex-POW Bulletin, February 1998)

• POW/MIA Returns from Death - Army MSgt. Mateo Sabog served 24 years. On 25 February 1970, he completed his second tour of duty in Vietnam. Army records indicate "there is no evidence that Sabog used his plane ticket, or that his personal effects were claimed in Vietnam." In 1979, Sabog's brother wrote then-President Carter seeking assistance in finding information about his brother and challenging the Army's determination that he had deserted. The Army convened a board of officers to review all available evidence and to determine an appropriate status for MSgt. Sabog. The board recommended Sabog's status be changed to "Missing - Presumptive Finding of Death." This change in status was made retroactive effective 26 March 1970, the date he was to report to Fort Bragg. Sabog's family was notified that this recommendation was approved in December 1979. In July 1993 the Pentagon's office in charge of POW/MIA affairs told the Army that Sabog's name would be added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as having died in the war. On 11 April 1995 the same POW/MIA office in the Pentagon informed Sabog's brothers that remains that the Vietnamese government had indicated were Sabog's had been recovered. These remains included 22 teeth (5 showing possible restorations) along with some bones. The Vietnamese also turned over some personal effects and clothing to the Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii (CILHI) for examination. "CILHI did indicate that the bones might belong to Sabog. "In late February 1996, Mateo Sabog used his correct name and social security number to apply for veteran's benefits. When computer records indicated the application was being made in the name of a man who was officially classified as dead, fingerprints were compared and they proved Sabog was who he claimed to be. In early March 1996, Mateo Sabog was returned to active duty so he could be admitted to the Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Fort Gordon, Georgia for evaluation and any needed medical treatment. According to an Army spokesman he's been somewhere for the last 26 years. But he served his country honorably. We will treat him with dignity." (Washington Times, March 7, 1996)
• Newly declassified documents show the U S. lied about the fate of hundreds of Vietnamese commandos it sent into North Vietnam in the 1960's, declaring them dead when many survived The U.S. government deliberately declared the secret agents dead, lied to their families and covered up the matter during the Vietnam War. Nearly 200 of them survived capture, torture and prison and are alive in the U.S. today. (16 June 1996: Reuter's Wire Service)
• More than 1400 pages of recently declassified documents from the National Archive were posted on the Internet. The documents show that the United States and the Republic of Vietnam have withheld vital information from family member s for decades. Not only do the documents show a meticulous method of record keeping by the enemy, but they spell out intent to capture, hold, document, trade, and lie to the United States on the subject of live captured American servicemen. (P.O.W. NETWORK, June 19, 1996, Operation "Smoking Gun")
• Over the last several months, in separate conversations with the National Alliance of Families New York State Director, Lynn O'Shea, one casualty officer assured her there was no cover-up or conspiracy in the P.O.W. issue. In his words there is "Just a lot of incompetence." While speaking with a Senator's aide, on a specific case, we were told, "If the government purposefully went out to hire stupid people to handle this case, they could not have done a better job." (09/08/96 National Alliance of Families, Bits N Pieces Newsletter.)
• In his native Russian, General Volkogonov wrote of his efforts to help resolve the fate of American POWs. "I am not certain that we have fully clarified everything. I know that quite a few documents were destroyed. However, one document, probably sensational, is still in storage. I have a copy of it. It's content is as follows: at the end of the 1960s the KGB (external foreign intelligence) was given the task of "delivering informed Americans to the USSR for intelligence gathering purposes."... General Volkogonov's notes continued: "History, especially Soviet history, is full of secrets, and very often evil. With the exception of this incident, I can say that I have done something in order to raise the mysterious curtain from them...." On November 9th, 1998, in an article by Bill Gertz, the Washington Times broke the story of the document's existence. According to the article, "Moscow is refusing to turn over a secret KGB document suggesting captured Americans were taken to the Soviet Union in the late 1960s for "intelligence-gathering purposes..." The article continued, "The Russian government has told U.S. officials the plan was never carried out, and Moscow recently turned down U.S. government requests to study the intelligence document, saying it is classified and will not be released, the officials said...." (Bits and Pieces November 11, 1998)
• ... The POW issue is now the subject of scrutiny and debate following recent parliamentary testimony by two former prisoners of war who related their miserable plight in North Korea. Even today, 45 years after the end of the Korean War, there are more than 100 South Koreans being held captive in the Communist North.Chang Mu-hwan and Yang Sun-yong, both in their 70s, appealed to the government to bring back the South Korean prisoners of war held in the North. Both were believed to have been killed in action, but they returned to the South separately in September and December after escaping from North Korea where they toiled away, year after year as forced laborers. They are among the three South Korean POWs to have escaped the North in four years; the first was Cho Chang-ho who arrived here in 1994. (The Korea Herald, November 26, 1998)
• TOTALS FROM ALL WARS -- Includes Gulf, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo - PLEASE NOTE THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE 92,000 MIAS - ONLY KNOWN CAPTURED
  Captured and Interned 142,232
  Died while POW 17,004
  Refused Repatriation 21
  Returned to US Military Control 125,207
  Alive as of Jan 1, 1992 93,029
  Alive as of Jan 1, 1998 55,999
  Alive as of Jan 1, 2001 46,417
  Alive as of Jan 1, 2002 42,781
  (Ex-POW Bulletin, June 2001, Feb 1998, March 2002)
• Not all POWs who died in captivity are buried at home. Many are buried in foreign cemeteries, some with only a cross for a name to mark their sacrifice. In some instances, no grave site or burial site is known.
• ONE serviceman or woman from any war, is still noted by the United States Government as being a "Prisoner of War" (POW) or "Missing in Action" (MIA). Presumptive Finding of Death hearings have been held on each and every one of the rest, as mandated by the Missing Service Personnel Act. The result has been status changes from POW and MIA to Killed in Action/Body not Recovered (KIA/BNR) or Presumptive Finding of Death (PFOD). Included in these status changes, were the 324 servicemen in the Vietnam conflict that were "last known alive." All posted biographies will state the status as of 1973, prior to many PFOD hearings, and promotions at the time of the hearings. Most family members and concerned citizens still refer to the ORIGINAL status of their loved ones -- using POW or MIA.
• Serb TV early today showed pictures of three American soldiers it said its forces captured near the Macedonian border. The men were identified as Sergeants James Stone and Andrew Ramirez and Specialist Steven Gonzalez. The patrol, a unit from the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, was part of a NATO force put in place to secure Macedonia's border with Kosovo, a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic. The soldiers were named on television are thought to be held in the Kosovo capital, Pristina. The vice-president of Yugolslavia, Vuk Draskovic, said: "Nothing wrong will happen to them. We are respecting the enemy. We will be sticking to the terms of the Geneva Convention. You can be sure of that." However, he then warned: "They are going to face Serb justice." Pentagon and NATO officials said alliance forces and Macedonian police mounted an urgent air and ground search for the soldiers, who were last reported on a civilian road in Kumanovo, about 10 miles (16 km) from Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, and less than 3 miles (5 km) from theKosovo border. The last words heard from them were "help, help, SOS." [NOTE: As these men were part of "peace-keeping" forces, status as Prisoners of War, protected under the Geneva Convention, was uncertain.] (Compiled from news clips (AP, UPI, London Times, New York Post, ABC 04/01/99)
• ...Preston's son Terry is very matter-of-fact in his expression of disappointment toward the handling of his father's case. "I either want to see him walk through the door alive... Or I want someone to show me a body that will prove to me that he isn't."

  Neither the Preston family nor the families of the seven others who were lost with him have been given either such means of closure.

  In May 1999, the U.S. government presented each family with a highly inconclusive report signed by Dr. Thomas D. Holland, Scientific Director of the Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii, which claims that 23 small, non-mt-DNA-tested bone fragments "may" be those of one or all of the crew members. The remains were highly fragmented, rendering individual assessment impossible....

  Nonetheless, on December 13, 1999, despite the inconclusiveness of the "group identification" and the lack of mass graves, the Pentagon released its official, public announcement that all members of this crew of U.S. military service personnel are now "accounted for."... {Amanda Y. Kidd is a Georgia freelance journalist and a relative of CMSgt. James Arthur Preston - Missing In Action - Laos. January 24, 2000) POW MISSION OF HOPE - The James Preston Case

• Bits 'N' Pieces January 29, 2000 {below is only a PORTION of the newsletter}

  ... In December 1998, the National Alliance of Families was provided with a set of briefing slides outlining the long term plans of DPMO... Notably absent, at year 2004, is any funding for the Joint Task Force - Full Accounting (JTF-FA.)

  Folks, those are the guys that, in DPMO's own words "conducts operations, to include, analysis, investigations, archival research, and recovery of remains." Quite simply, no JTF-FA, more information, and no more remains recoveries. This impacts our World War II - Korean And Cold War - Vietnam - and Gulf War families and the overall POW/MIA issue....

  Our fears were again confirmed, by a statement contained on page 4 of a DPMO booklet titled "POW/MIA Accounting," dated 1999. The statement, under the caption "VISION" reads; "By the end of the year 2004, we will have moved from the way the US government conducts the business of recovery and accounting to an active program of loss prevention, immediate rescues, and rapid post-hostility accounting."

  There it is folks, in black and white, in DPMO's own words "By the end of the year 2004, we will have moved from the way the US government conducts the business of recovery and accounting to an active program of loss prevention, immediate rescues, and rapid post-hostility accounting."

  The government is planning to go from what they consider their active mode to a passive mode. This means investigations will be made only if Vietnam, North Korea, China, or Russia decide to provide information. Since all of the nations cited continue to withhold information, what makes anyone think that they will decide to provide information when we stop asking?

  We were further disturbed by the contents of the January 14th, 2000 DPMO Weekly Update describing an "Extensive Study" that "Addresses Recovery and Accounting." The update reads; " The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office has initiated a broad study to examine the worldwide mission of POW/MIA personnel recovery and accounting."

  "The Department of Defense is charged by law with responsibility for policy and oversight of the full range of recovery activity, from pre-combat training, to combat search and rescue to remains recovery. In light of the evolving missions of the Department of Defense, this effort will help ensure that the most effective use possible is made of DoD resources."

  "The analysis, called the Mission Area Analysis (MAA), is to help implement the best use of money, resources and technology across the wide range of DoD's responsibilities in personnel recovery and accounting." [Our comment: this means JTF-FA.]

  "It will examine the entire range of personnel recovery, to include diplomatic, military, and other means of recovering isolated personnel. The examination will address recovery operations throughout the spectrum of conflict from small-scale contingencies to major theater war and peacetime operations, both at a tactical and strategic level."

  "The study will analyze the forces dedicated to personnel recovery as well as the structure of the organizations which carry out this mission."

  "It will identify deficiencies and pinpoint where any changes are necessary in doctrine, policy, organization or technology. Interagency coordination (between the military and other branches of this government, and other nations) is a critical element of effective planning for personnel recovery, and the MAA will examine all aspects of this coordination process."

  "In the area of personnel accounting and remains recovery the MAA will analyze all facets of this mission from operational activities to diplomatic effort to achieve the fullest possible accounting of past and future unaccounted-for Americans."

  "It will look closely at the missions and structure and budgets of the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office; the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii; the U.S. Army Casualty and Memorial Affairs Operations Center; the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory; the U.S. Air Force Life Sciences Equipment Laboratory; and the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting; and highlight areas where the Department can most effectively employ its resources to better accomplish the mission."

  "The study began in late 1999 and is scheduled for completion in late 2000."

  It is our opinion that this study will eventually provide the justification to end POW/MIA investigations, as we know them. While we have never been happy with the methods used to investigate and resolve POW/MIA cases, we can not allow DPMO to shift their methods of operations when so much more needs to be done.

  The U.S. government has mishandled the POW/MIA issue since 1945. We left men in North Korea, China, the former Soviet Union, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. We mishandled every opportunity to gain information and gave away everything in our grab bag of incentives. These incentives, such as aid and trade, may have gained us our live POWs or valuable information on the fate of others...

  Are we prepared to allow the United States government, represented by DPMO, to complete the abandonment of men like Charles Shelton, David Hrdlicka, Roger Dumas, Richard Deseautels, John McDonnell and the others like them?

  ################

  What about John McDonnell - In the September 11th, 1999 edition of Bits N Pieces we carefully outlined the facts leading to the inescapable conclusion that John McDonnell was alive in a Ba To prison camp, in late February 1973. He was alive, folks! When the freedom birds were leaving Hanoi, John McDonnell was still in the jungles of Vietnam and, he wasn't alone. DPMO has labeled all the sightings of McDonnell as fabrications. They aren't.

  Are we prepared to allow the USG to complete the abandonment of John McDonnell? We're not done with this case. We've found other information that may correlate to this case. We've also found one live sighting that if not related to John McDonnell is a coincidence beyond statistical probability... Yet, DPMO refuses to request access to, or locate, the witnesses who saw and spoke with John McDonnell, at Ba To.

Source: www.pownetwork.org/statistics.htm

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You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. - Jeannete Rankin

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