[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 18474-18477]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




EXPRESSING THANKS OF THE HOUSE TO AMERICAN POW/MIAs ON NATIONAL POW/MIA 
                            RECOGNITION DAY

  Mr. SIMMONS. 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.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                              H. Res. 771

       Whereas from World War II to the present, more than 88,000 
     members of the Untited States Armed Forces remain unaccounted 
     for;
       Whereas nearly 50,000 former American prisoners of war are 
     currently living in the United States;
       Whereas the United States owes a significant debt of 
     gratitude for the sacrifice and hardships endured by former 
     prisoners of war and missing personnel;
       Whereas former prisoners of war continue to serve and 
     inspire our nation;
       Whereas National POW/MIA Recognition Day is one of the six 
     days specified by law as days on which the POW/MIA flag is to 
     be flown over specified Federal facilities and national 
     cemeteries, post offices, and military installations; and
       Whereas tens of thousands of American families have loved 
     ones who are still listed as unaccounted for and daily endure 
     tremendous hardship and emotional suffering: Now, therefore, 
     be it
       Resolved,  That the House of Representatives--
       (1) recognizes that National POW/MIA Recognition Day is one 
     of the six days specified by law (pursuant to section 902 of 
     title 36, United States Code) as a day on which the POW/MIA 
     flag is to be flown over specified Federal facilities and 
     national cemeteries, military installations, and post 
     offices;
       (2) extends the gratitude of the House of Representatives 
     and the Nation to those who have served their nation in 
     captivity to hostile forces as prisoners of war;

[[Page 18475]]

       (3) recognizes and honors the more than 88,000 members of 
     the United States Armed Forces who remain unaccounted for and 
     their families;
       (4) recognizes the untiring efforts of national POW/MIA 
     organizations to ensuring that America never forgets the 
     contribution of the Nation's prisoners of war and unaccounted 
     for military personnel; and
       (5) calls on all Americans to recognize National POW/MIA 
     Recognition Day with appropriate remembrances, ceremonies, 
     and activities.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Simmons) and the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Snyder) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Simmons).


                             General Leave

  Mr. SIMMONS. 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.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Connecticut?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. SIMMONS. 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.

                              {time}  1315

  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. SNYDER. 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

[[Page 18476]]

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. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins), fellow co-sponsor of this 
legislation.
  Mr. COLLINS. 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. SNYDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans).
  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 771, legislation 
recognizing the contributions toward our freedoms by our POWs, and I am 
proud to co-sponsor the resolution which has been introduced by the 
good Member from Connecticut. I praise his efforts on this issue and 
many others.
  I have served on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs for almost 
the last 22 years. It has given me an opportunity to meet a lot of our 
country's heroes. I have always had the utmost respect for our POWs and 
our MIAs for their sacrifices, and their sacrifices leaves us all 
silenced in their respect.
  I would also like to recognize the government of Vietnam, which has 
provided the recovery of our service members' remains. Our growing 
relationship with Vietnam has been conditional on their cooperation and 
support in the recovery of our fallen servicemembers. Deputy Under 
Secretary Jerry Jennings who leads the American efforts has praised the 
cooperation and the openness by the government of Vietnam that has 
ensured the repatriation of nearly 800 remains of our missing 
servicemembers. It has been an important task that provides a great 
deal for the members of the service and their families, which will 
continue until every fallen soldier is brought back home.
  I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.
  Mr. SNYDER. 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. SIMMONS. 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.

                              {time}  1330

  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

[[Page 18477]]

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. REYES. 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.
  Mr. CASE. 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. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kline). All time for debate has expired.
  The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Simmons) that the House suspend the rules and agree to 
the resolution, H. Res. 771.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________