[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 64 (Tuesday, May 19, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E892-E893]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 ARMED FORCES' DAY ``WE MUST REMEMBER''

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LORETTA SANCHEZ

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 19, 1998

  Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, this weekend I joined the veterans in my 
community to recognize the first day the Prisoner of War and Missing in 
Action Flag was flown Nationally on Armed Forces' Day.
  During the day, I had the opportunity to hear the stories of 
America's POWs and MIAs.
  Their stories weighed on my heart and angered my senses. These men 
deserve from the United States as much, if not more, than they have 
given to us.
  For these reasons, I cosponsored Public Law 105-85, legislation that 
requires the flying of the POW/MIA flag at Federal facilities, 
including U.S. Post Offices.
  Having the flag flown at Federal offices and facilities will help us 
remember the work that remains to honor these courageous individuals 
and their families.
  The POW/MIA flag offers us an opportunity not only to remember and 
recognize those we have lost, but also to rededicate ourselves to the 
cause of finding these men or their remains and bringing them home to 
their families and their grateful Nation.
  We need to secure a full accounting of the men and women who fought 
for our Nation's flag and who were captured by the enemy or listed as 
missing.
  We must work together to ensure the fullest possible accounting of 
these men for their family and all Americans who have benefited from 
their fight for freedom and liberty.
  Although this is a good first step to recognizing and remembering 
those missing soldiers, I believe we must do more.
  Recently, I joined several of my colleagues in contacting the State 
Department expressing our concern about the POW/MIA who are still 
unaccounted for from the Korean War.
  We felt that the POW/MIA subject should have been a priority subject 
during the negotiations in Geneva this past December.
  I strongly believe that any agreement for peace must include a 
serious commitment on the part of the government of North Korea to 
locate missing soldiers of the thousands of Korean Veterans I 
represent.
  As you know, a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, underscored by 
a unified democratic government is a goal for which our Veterans fought 
bravely during the conflict of 1950-1953.
  Under adverse conditions, and sometimes against a numerically 
superior enemy, U.S. troops battled to preserve a non-communist enclave 
on the Asian continent.
  At a time during the cold war when the forces of communism seemed on 
the rise across the world, the performance of our valiant soldiers, 
sailors and airmen affirmed the resolve of democracy.
  Now that the first steps to achieving peace in Korea are being taken, 
it is paramount that the US negotiators insist on POW/MIA closure are 
subject to any formal accord.

  By doing so, we honor the troops who put forth the ultimate 
sacrifice;
  We honor their families, who have lived with uncertainty about their 
loved ones for over 40 years; most importantly;
  We honor those veterans of the Korean War still living, who will 
never forget their colleagues lost on the nameless hills, ridges and 
valleys during those 3 long years.
  I will continue to urge the State Department to work with the 
Pentagon in articulating a clear and resolute position for the United 
States on unresolved POW/MIA personnel cases as the talks continue.
  A lasting peace cannot be fully achieved unless those who fought for 
it are accounted for by a grateful nation.
  And I will continue to express my concern to the federal government.
  It has been over 20 years since the war in Vietnam ended, yet our 
Government has still not accounted for so many of those men who went to 
a far away nation to defend an unknown people against an unseen enemy.
  We have almost erased the scourge of Communism from the face of the 
earth, yet we have not yet fully recognized all of the men who made 
this victory of democracy possible.
  Until we bring home these men, the war is not over. We must continue 
to fight and remember those we have lost in our battle for freedom.
  Until all of the men, from throughout this country, have been 
accounted for, we must not rest in our efforts.
  As a member of the National Security Committee, I commit myself to 
America's veterans.

[[Page E893]]

I commit myself to working in the memory of the thousands of Americans 
who served in America's wars and were captured by the enemy or listed 
as missing in action.
  I commit myself to the families of those whose fate has been unknown 
and who have had to suffer tragic and continuing hardships.
  In Washington, engraved at the Veterans's Administration Building, is 
a quote from Abraham Lincoln, ``To care for him who shall have borne 
the battle, and for his orphan.''
  I do not believe that America has sufficiently cared for all of those 
men who have been declared missing or captured.
  Until we have a full accounting, we cannot fulfill this promise to 
America's veterans and families.

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