The Korean War

 ... aka 'The Forgotten War'
 ... aka 'Truman's Police Action'

 ... began 60 years ago on June 25th, 1950, along the 38th parallel.


It was a war that was never declared as a war but rather termed a "police action".

A Few Facts About "The Forgotten War":


33,741  US Dead
23,615  Killed In Action
92,134  US Wounded (not including those lightly wounded and returned to action)

389 POWs were known to have been alive after all U.S. POWs supposedly returned.

I doubt that the men who fought at Inchon and the Chosin Reservoir   and the families of those KIA have ever forgotten.

The Korean War

The Korean War

WW II Marine Honored

On September 9, 2009, First Sergeant Casey T. Bazewick, USMC (retired), 91, was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds he received as a prisoner of war in World War II. He enlisted before WWII in 1938, after two years in the Marine Corps Reserve. 

He served with the 4th Marines in Shanghai and on Corregidor in its defense until it fell on May 6, 1942. 

He became a prisoner of Japan for 39 months: 92 Garage (Corregidor), Bilibid Prison (Manila), Cabanatuan (Luzon, where 42% died in the first year), Hell Ship Tottori Maru (on deck he watched it nearly sunk by two American torpedoes), and Mukden, Manchuria at a large Mitsubishi factory (three winters, 40–50 below zero). 

  Read the story at Sgt Grit's Scuttlebutt

Congratulations, First Sergeant! OoohRah! 

 

Together They Will Come Home

The agonizing year-long wait for news of Iraq War POW-MIAs Alex Jimenez and Byron Fouty is over. The Pentagon has confirmed the deaths of both soldiers.

The two were kidnapped after their unit was ambushed on May 12, 2007, in the volatile area south of Baghdad known as the "triangle of death" while serving with the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, NY.

New England Care for Our Military, a family support group, had a banner for the missing soldiers:

“Together they serve our nation and together they will come home.”

So they did And so they will.

Requietum En Pacem, Soldiers

Matt Maupin Is Coming Home...

... at last.

“Matt is coming home. He’s completed his mission"

his father, Keith Maupin, said.

Army Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin had been listed as Missing-captured in Iraq since April 9, 2004, after his convoy was ambushed.






A week later the Al-Jazeera tv network aired a videotape showing Sgt Maupin sitting on the floor surrounded by masked men holding automatic weapons.
Then in June, another tape was aired that purported to show a U.S. soldier being murdered. The tape was dark and grainy, showing only the back of the victim's head.

Nearly four years after his capture, Sgt Maupin has been found in Iraq.
The U.S. Army notified the Maupin family that Matt had been identified through DNA.

Requiescat In Pace, Soldier

Lest we forget: 3 U.S. soldiers remain listed as Missing-Captured.
Pvt Byron Fouty, Spc Alex Jimenez, and Spc Ahmed Al-Tayyie

Not Forgotten: Col William R Higgins

February 17, 2008 will be 20 years since Colonel William R. Higgins last breathed free.

Prisoner of War or Hostage?

"February 17, 1988, USMC Lt Colonel William "Rich' Higgins, Commander of UN Group Lebanon, peace-keepers, was captured by Hezbollah extremists.

He was not considered to be a Prisoner of War. A year and a half after being taken, images of Col. Higgins' hanged body were seen on television. During those 18 months of captivity, Col. Higgins was 'interrogated' and tortured.

He was still not considered to be a Prisoner of War. Two years later, December 1991, Col. Higgins' remains were dumped on a Beirut Street. Even after burial at the National Veteran's Cemetery at Quantico, Col. Higgins was not considered to have been a Prisoner of War."

Unbelievable.

Because Colonel Higgins' country always considered him a "hostage" and never a "prisoner of war," there were never any demands of international rules of treatment, no Red Cross visits, no insistence on medical care or humane treatment, no POW medal to signify what he endured.

The State Department, not the Defense Department, had the lead. That meant diplomacy, not military might. It meant no retribution, no retaliation, no rescue.

That had to do with the perceived political sensitivities of civilians being held at the same time, but let's not ever forget we owe a special debt to those who go into harm's way because of their unique bond to this country.

Whenever and wherever we commit American service members, we must acknowledge they will be subject to those who would harm them, whether in combat or terrorist acts.

UPDATE from LtCol Robin Higgins - USMC Retired:
After over 10 years of fighting with our govt on this, I have finally received a POW Medal for Rich. Of course, the Secretary of the Navy was quick to point out that this does not change his "official status" as a detainee or hostage or whatever. Supposedly that takes an Act of Congress -- really. But you know what an American will do for a piece of ribbon. Now I can finally get Rich's medals mounted.

Rest in Peace, Marine

Not Forgotten: MIA in Laos

On the night of 23/24 Nov 1967 an RF-4C (tail number 65-0844) of the 11th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron was lost while on a weather recon mission over North Vietnam.

One report suggests the aircraft went down over the Plain of Jars in Central Laos; no wreckage was ever found.

The two crewmen were classified as Missing in Action:


Col Brendan P Foley, New York, NY (Pic: Right)

Capt Ronald M Mayercik, Edison, NJ (Pic: Left)


Their remains have not been recovered.

Foley and Mayercik are two of nearly 600 Americans that were lost in Laos. The Pathet Lao, stated on several occasions that they held American prisoners, but Laos was not included in the Paris Peace agreements ending the war.

As a consequence, there were no negotiations for American POWs held in Laos.

Not one American held in Laos has ever been released.

Men like Foley and Mayercik were abandoned to the enemy.

In 1979, Sean O'Toolis, an Irish-American, was touring Bong Song Camp, 40 miles south of Hanoi, on an IRA gun-buying mission, when he alleges he met and spoke with American POWs Brendan Foley and Wade Groth, who were prison workmates. He also claims to have spoken to men named MacDonald, Jenning and an O'Hare or O'Hara. He brought a message to Foley's brother and fingerprints of Foley and O'Hara. He identified old photos of Groth, and gave believable descriptions of Foley and Groth.

Reports continue to be received that Americans are alive today, being held captive. Whether Foley and Mayercik are among them is not known, but they certainly do not deserve the abandonment they received at the hands of the country they so proudly served.

Source

Not Forgotten: National POW/MIA Day

Congress has set aside the 3rd Friday of September in each year as National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

It is a time to remember those who never came home and to remind us that, while we enjoy the privileges of freedom, somewhere there are soldiers who have not been accounted for and may, in fact, be held against their will by the enemies of Freedom.

Three American soldiers from the Iraq War remain POW / MIA:

Since April 9, 2004:

Keith Matthew "Matt" Maupin, Sgt, United States Army.

http://www.iraqwarheroes.com/maupin.htm

Since October 23, 2006:

Ahmed Altaie, Iraqi-American Army Specialist and Linguist,

Since May 12, 2007:

Byron Fouty , age 19, Army pvt:

http://www.iraqwarheroes.com/fouty.htm


Since May 12, 2007:

Alex Jimenez, age 25, Army Spc:
http://www.iraqwarheroes.com/jimeneza.htm

You are NOT Forgotten!!

An Enormous Crime

September 21, 2007
National POW / MIA Recognition Day

It is a time to remember those who never came home and to remind us that somewhere there are soldiers who have not been accounted for and may, in fact, be held against their will by the enemies of Freedom.

At the end of the Vietnam War, there reportedly were 2,583 unaccounted-for American Prisoners missing or killed in action/body not recovered.

As of April 11, 2007, there are 1,786 Americans still missing, over 90% of them in Vietnam or in areas of Laos and Cambodia where Vietnamese forces operated during the war.

The enormous crime is the deliberate abandonment of 700 US POWs in Vietnam and Laos back in 1973 — and the continued cover-up of the existence of these men.

Former North Carolina Congressman Bill Hendon spent the last 25 years digging into intelligence files in an effort to learn what really happened to those POWs:

..."right at the end of Operation Homecoming, the men were released in groups and when the last group was ready to come out, Watergate crashed down on Nixon. That was the beginning of the end for Nixon and the beginning of the end for the unreturned prisoners.

The Vietnamese were going to release them once they got their money. We promised to pay that $4.75 billion. They gave us half of our guys back and when they didn't get the money they kept the other half. The money was never even appropriated by Congress.

Back on Jan. 26, 1981, the North Vietnamese signaled to the new Reagan-Bush administration that they would "sell" living U.S. POWs for $4 billion."

The book is titled "An Enormous Crime; The Definitive Account of American POWs Abandoned in Southeast Asia", written by former Rep. Bill Hendon and Beth Stewart, published by St. Martin's Press.