[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 100 (Tuesday, June 13, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               U.S. WWII MIA RECOVERY OPERATIONS IN INDIA

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                          HON. GEORGE HOLDING

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 13, 2017

  Mr. HOLDING. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to the 
ongoing and long-standing efforts to recover the remains of American 
service members who served during World War II in northeast India.
   These service members remain missing in action to this day and they 
deserve a proper burial.
   During World War II, the United States flew hundreds of supply 
missions on a route that included flight paths directly over the 
Himalayas through enemy territory from India to China.
   Given these treacherous routes and hazardous flying conditions, the 
United States took heavy causalities.
   To this day Mr. Speaker, U.S. airmen remain unrecovered and 
unburied.
   Efforts to locate and document these crash sites have been 
intermittently undertaken by both private citizens and the U.S. 
Department of Defense.
   Over the years, in addition to these documentation efforts, the 
Governments of the United States and India have worked together to 
recover our service members.
   However Mr. Speaker, the tempo of recovery operations could be 
categorized as slow at best for a variety of reasons, leaving the 
families of the deceased without closure.
   Part of the problem involves the challenging conditions in which 
these crash sites are located--some have been located on the Himalayan 
mountainsides at altitudes approaching 10,000 feet.
   Unfortunately Mr. Speaker, the single largest impediment to these 
recovery operations came when the Government of India placed a de facto 
moratorium on operations in Arunachal Pradesh for the vast majority of 
2010 until 2015.
   It should be noted during this time, that Leon Panetta, who at the 
time was Secretary of Defense, visited India and was able to secure 
permission for the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command to recover remains 
and bring them back to the United States. The spirit of this agreement 
lives on today.
   In early 2016, then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter participated in 
a repatriation ceremony in New Delhi which highlighted a recovery 
operation undertaken by the Joint POW/MIA Account Command at the end of 
2015.
   Mr. Speaker, the United States and India today enjoy ever-increasing 
defense and security ties that underscore our strategic partnership.
   As co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian 
Americans, I urge the Governments of the United States and India to 
increase their collaboration and accelerate the recovery of these 
remains. The families of those lost during World War II deserve 
closure. We need to bring our airmen home.

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