When Do Veterans Get An Apology from McCain?

UPDATE
Looks like AP fact checker on McCain's record didn't get it right.

FACT CHECK: Trump shortchanges McCain's record on veterans
Associated Press July 21, 2015

THE FACTS: McCain has a long record of supporting veterans' issues in Congress. He was instrumental in a landmark law approved last year to overhaul the scandal-plagued Department of Veterans Affairs. McCain worked with the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, as well as Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House veterans panel, to help win passage of the law, which aims to alleviate long delays veterans faced in getting medical care.

The VA says it has completed 7 million more appointments for care in the past year, compared with the previous year, but veterans still face increased wait times in Phoenix, Las Vegas and other places. "As we improve access, even more veterans are coming to VA for their care," Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson told Congress last month. As a result, waiting times for appointments longer than 30 days are up 50 percent from a year ago, he said.

McCain pushed for a provision in the law allowing veterans who live more than 40 miles away from a VA health care site to get government-paid care from a local doctor. McCain and Miller also pushed to make it easier to fire senior VA employees for poor performance.

McCain also was central in a law enacted this year aimed at reducing a suicide epidemic among military veterans that claims the lives of an estimated 22 every day. The law is named for Clay Hunt, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who killed himself in 2011. It requires the VA and the Pentagon to submit to independent reviews of their suicide prevention programs and offers financial incentives to psychiatrists and other mental health professionals who agree to work for the VA.
read more here and then try to contain your laughter.

Now back to reality from yesterday.

I am furious over what Trump said on so many different levels. The first reason is that Trump did end up insulting all POWs when he tried to talk about being captured did not make McCain a hero. Poor choice of words? Ok, that is possible.

Donald Trump Says He Does Not Owe John McCain Apology
ABC News
By BENJAMIN BELL and EMILY SHAPIRO
Jul 19, 2015

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he does not owe John McCain an apology for saying the Arizona senator is only a war hero “because he was captured.”

Trump told Martha Raddatz on ABC's "This Week" that he won't be pulling out of the presidential race over his comments, which he made Saturday during a campaign event in Iowa. Trump said he left to a "standing ovation" after speaking at the Family Leadership Council summit.

"When I left the room, it was a total standing ovation," said Trump. "It was wonderful to see. Nobody was insulted."
read more here

ABC US News | World News

The trouble is the rest of what Trump said was lost after he said that. It turns out that McCain thinks he is not owed an apology

John McCain: Donald Trump Owes Vets an Apology, Not Me
NBC
by CARRIE DANN
July 20, 2015

Sen. John McCain said Monday that he does not view himself as a hero but that Donald Trump owes an apology to veterans for his comments about soldiers captured in war.

Asked on MSNBC's Morning Joe if Trump owes him an apology, McCain responded: "No, I don't think so. But I think he may owe an apology to the families of those who have sacrificed in conflict and those who have undergone the prison experience in serving their country."

"There are so many men, and some women, who served and sacrificed and happened to be held prisoner and somehow to denigrate that, in any way, their service I think is offensive," he added.
read more here

The trouble is that McCain has never apologized to veterans on his voting record after using them for their votes. He has never served on the Veterans Affairs Committee and no one ever asked him to explain why he is only interested in the Senate Armed Service Committee.

Trump: I don't need to be lectured
USA Today
Donald Trump
July 19, 2015

McCain has abandoned our veterans. I will fight for them. During my entire business career, I have always made supporting veterans a top priority because our heroes deserve the very best for defending our freedom. Our Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals are outdated dumps. I will build the finest and most modern veterans hospitals in the world. The current medical assistance to our veterans is a disaster. A Trump administration will provide the finest universal access health care for our veterans. They will be able to get the best care anytime and anywhere.

Thanks to McCain and his Senate colleague Bernie Sanders, their legislation to cover up the VA scandal, in which 1,000+ veterans died waiting for medical care, made sure no one has been punished, charged, jailed, fined or held responsible. McCain has abandoned our veterans. I will fight for them.

The reality is that John McCain the politician has made America less safe, sent our brave soldiers into wrong-headed foreign adventures, covered up for President Obama with the VA scandal and has spent most of his time in the Senate pushing amnesty. He would rather protect the Iraqi border than Arizona’s. He even voted for the Iran Nuclear Review Act of 2015, which allows Obama, who McCain lost to in a record defeat, to push his dangerous Iran nuclear agreement through the Senate without a supermajority of votes.
read more here

If you read Wounded Times, then you know what McCain's record has been and on that, Trump got part of it right because it has been bad for veterans but then again, it has gotten substantially worse since McCain went into the Senate.

Lets start with a little history lesson for the Chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee

Women in combat if you look at the link, you can read what he must have not known about. In the 1991 debate over women pilots, McCain took a traditionalist stance. "This nation has existed for over 215 years," McCain said. "At no time in the history of our nation have women been in combat roles."

Hmm. Guess he forgot that women have in fact received every combat medal including the Medal of Honor during the Civil war.

The Medal of Honor - the nation's highest award.
Dr Mary Walker, a surgeon in the Civil War, was awarded the nation's highest honor by President Andrew Johnson. The citation reads, in part: "Whereas it appears from official reports that Dr. Mary E. Walker, a graduate of medicine, has rendered valuable service to the government, and her efforts have been earnest and untiring in a variety of ways, and that she was assigned to duty and served as an assistant surgeon in charge of female prisoners at Louisville, KY., under the recommendation of Major-Generals Sherman and Thomas, and faithfully served as contract surgeon in the service of the United states, and has devoted herself with much patriotic zeal to the sick and wounded soldiers, both in the field and hospitals, to the detriment of her own health, and has endured hardships as a prisoner of war four months in a southern prison while acting as contract surgeon...."

Dr. Walker's Medal of Honor was rescinded in 1917, along with some 900 others. Some believed her medal was rescinded because of her involvement as a suffragette. Others discredit that opinion as 909 other medals rescinded were awarded to men. The stated reason was to ". . . increase the prestige of the grant."

For whatever reason, she refused to return the Medal of Honor and wore it until her death in 1919. Fifty-eight years later, the U.S. Congress posthumously reinstated her medal, and it was restored by President Carter on June 10, 1977.

Women who received the Distinguished Service Cross - WWI

Jane Jeffery: A nurse serving with the American Red Cross: severely wounded during an air raid, refused to leave her post and continued to help others.

Beatrice M. MacDonald: wounded in Belgium during an air raid at a casualty clearing station and lost sight in her right eye.

Helen Grace McClelland: also on duty with the surgical team at the British casualty clearing station and cared for Beatrice MacDonald during the air raid.

Eva Jean Parmelee: although wounded in air raid she continued to serve throughout the emergency.

Isabelle Stambaugh: seriously wounded in an air raid at a British casualty clearing station in Amiens, while working in the operating room with a surgical team.

Reconstruction Aide Emma S. Sloan

If you want to know more like the names of heroic military women during combat with the Navy Cross, Silver Star, Air Medal, Bronze Star and Purple Heart, they are listed here.

The man should know something about military women considering how long he's been on the committee overseeing them! But hey, what do we expect from a man consistently wrong?

2008:

Stars and Stripes' interview with Sen. John McCain
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes online edition, Monday, August 11, 2008

Q: The backlog in the VA system is still very sizeable and a concern to even many of the younger guys. I don’t know how you’re looking at the issue, and how you fix something that the current administration has really struggled with.

I think the best thing we could possibly do is focus military medical care and the VA on treating the wounds directly related to combat: PTSD, combat wounds which they are uniquely qualified, through years of experience, to address.

I think in the case of veterans that have ordinary health care needs, routine health care needs, we should do everything we can to give them a card that they can take to the health care provider or doctor of their choice to get health care immediately.

Q: I know there has been a push by the current administration to take those healthier veterans and have them pay to help support the system, even a small, nominal fee. I don’t know if that’s something that you’d support.

First I think we’ve got to make sure that veterans receive the care, and then we have to worry about if there’s any necessary changes. I’m unalterably opposed to telling future generations of Americans that we’re not going to give them the health care they need in service for our country.

That means that I would be very reluctant, I would be opposed to imposing more financial costs.

McCain targets message to vets

At every stop since he began his Michigan blitz on Saturday, McCain recognized the veterans in the audience. He's promised to provide better medical care to veterans in the early days of his administration.

Merchant Marine Bill not signed by John McCain

Now all these years later, the few Merchant Marine war veterans still alive would like to see Senate Bill S961 passed. The House of Representatives passed the bill in 2007. Our two Arizona senators, Jon Kyl and John McCain, have not signed on even though 57 other senators have.

McCain won't back GI bill for veterans

Bush's speech on Webb's GI Bill was a load of lies "The bill being sent to the President contains every provision in S. 22, which has received meticulous scrutiny and the full support of every major veterans' organization. It will pay for a veteran's tuition, books, and a monthly stipend, along the lines of the benefits given to those who returned from World War II. As such, it fulfills the pledge I made on my first day of office to provide today's veterans with the opportunity to move forward into an absolutely first-class future.

"I would like to again express my appreciation to the veterans' service organizations, many of whom communicated their support of this bill directly to a skeptical White House, and to the 58 Senate and 302 House cosponsors of this landmark legislation. This bipartisan coalition consistently rejected the allegations of this Administration, and of Senators McCain, Burr and Graham, among others, who claimed that the bill was too generous to our veterans, too difficult to administer and would hurt retention.

In 2008 VA Watchdog posted McCain's record on veterans issues

John Sidney McCain
Current Office: U.S. Senate
Party: Republican
Status: Announced

Veterans Issues

2006 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 20 percent in 2006.

2006 In 2006 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator McCain a grade of D.

2006 Senator McCain sponsored or co-sponsored 18 percent of the legislation favored by the The Retired Enlisted Association in 2006.

2005 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 25 percent in 2005.

2004 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 50 percent in 2004.

2004 Senator McCain supported the interests of the The Retired Enlisted Association 0 percent in 2004.

2003-2004 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Vietnam Veterans of America 100 percent in 2003-2004.

2003 Senator McCain supported the interests of the The American Legion 50 percent in 2003.

2001 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Vietnam Veterans of America 46 percent in 2001.

1999 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 66 percent in 1999.

1997-1998 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Vietnam Veterans of America 0 percent in 1997-1998.

1989-1990 On the votes that the Vietnam Veterans of America considered to be the most important in 1989-1990 , Senator McCain voted their preferred position 50 percent of the time.

Veterans Issues
Date Bill Title Vote
10/01/2007 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 NV
02/02/2006 Tax Rate Extension Amendment N
11/17/2005 Additional Funding For Veterans Amendment N
10/05/2005 Health Care for Veterans Amendment N

Just one more notch on the doesn't give a damn list as after all these years veterans are still waiting for an apology from McCain and the rest of the politicians using them instead of taking care of them.

In 2010:

John McCain blocks troop suicide prevention program
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
From MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell blog:

Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, who admitted in his memoir to attempting suicide while held captive as a P.O.W. in Vietnam for 5 1/2 years, is responsible for blocking funding for a suicide prevention program aimed at military reserve troops returning home from combat.

In 2011:

Senator John McCain blocking effort to bring fallen sailors home from Libya Amanda Terkel

WASHINGTON -- Thirteen U.S. sailors who died in 1804 during the First Barbary War and were buried in Tripoli, Libya, may finally be coming home, if the American Legion gets its way.

Since the uprising in Libya broke out six months ago, the veterans organization has been lobbying Congress to bring home the remains of the U.S. servicemen. The crew, led by Master Commandant Richard Somers and Lt. Henry Wadsworth (uncle of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), died when their explosives-packed ship blew up prematurely during a mission to Tripoli.

The Senate, however, has not followed suit. According to Tetz, one stumbling block may be Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who served in the U.S. Navy.

(I could keep going on this but I'd need something to keep going and it is too early in the day to start drinking. I already had to make a phone call to calm down since my head was sending shrapnel to the other side of Orlando hitting Gunny's roof.)
The thing is, what this boils down to is so many folks seem to want to defend McCain over what Trump said about him instead of actually talking about how McCain has used his past service to cover up what he has managed to pull off when he had a chance to actually do something for veterans.

Trump does owe other POWs a huge apology for his comment and from what I understand, he will give it, humbly to them. The question is, when will someone demand an apology from McCain on behalf of all the veterans Trump tried to talk about?

Chief Master Sergeant Edwin E. Morgan Sr Escort Home

Vietnam veteran's remains return to NC
WCNC
Dan Yesenosky
June 25, 2015

The Patriot Guard is escorting the remains to a funeral home in Rockwell.

(Photo: NBC Charlotte)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A Vietnam War veteran missing in action for close to 50 years is back on U.S. soil. The remains of Chief Master Sergeant Edwin E. Morgan Sr. landed in Charlotte Thursday afternoon just after noon.

"This is a man who at 17 years old joined the service, actually he started in the Navy, then he went to the Army and then to the Air Force," said Patriot Guard C.W. Smith.

Edwin Morgan had been Missing In Action for 49 years.

"In 1966 his plane went down," Smith said.

Today he is home. The organization "Rolling Thunder Washington, D.C." says Morgan's remains had been identified through a match in dental records and landed at Charlotte Douglas Airport. The remains were carried from the plane and put into the hearse.

A massive procession of over 100 motorcycles escorted him 47 miles to Rockwell in Rowan County, where he'll be buried next to his wife.

"This is a man who wrote his name on a blank check," Smith said. "It was filled out to pay to the order of the United States of America. Unfortunately on the amount paid was the ultimate sacrifice of his life."

Morgan was 38 years old at the time in 1966, but through all these years he was never forgotten.
read more here

Family's 45 Year Wait Ends As Fallen Soldier Brought Home

Fallen soldier comes home from Vietnam 45 years later 
WCNC.com
April 9, 2015

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Bunyan Price died 45 years ago during the Vietnam War. Today his family was finally able to see him come home.

The family was joined at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport by a police escort along with some 300 members of the Patriot Guard.

They looked on as the casket with Price's remains was slowly lowered from the aircraft that carried him on the last leg of his long journey home.

His uncle, Harley Walker Jr. said, "We were kind of shocked but it is a relief."

Relief that the family now knows what happened to Price, who was a 19 year old fighting in Vietnam.
read more here

Man Meets Vietnam Veteran POW Bracelet Worn 50 Years Ago

'Bond between strangers': Vietnam POW bracelet to unite pair after decades
FOX News
By Cristina Corbin
Published April 04, 2015

Raymond Schrump is seen here as a POW in Vietnam.

The former U.S. Army major was held captive from 1968 to 1971.

(WRAL.com)

Harold Flowers was 13 when his parents gave him a POW bracelet during the Vietnam War in 1968 – a metal band bearing the name of a U.S. soldier captured by the North Vietnamese.

Nearly 50 years later, Flowers, of Angier, N.C., tracked down the man whose name he wore around his wrist: 83-year-old former U.S. Army Major Raymond Schrump, a Purple Heart recipient who spent nearly five years in an enemy prison camp.

On Saturday, the two will meet for the first time, and Flowers will give Schrump the bracelet he has kept all these years – a bracelet Schrump said represents a "bond between strangers."

"I feel like I've known this man all my life and I haven't met him yet," Schrump told FoxNews.com Thursday.

Schrump, severely malnourished, weighed just 86 pounds at the time of his rescue on Feb. 12, 1971, when he and 27 other American prisoners were flown by U.S. helicopters to Saigon. He was then taken to a U.S. base in the Philippines and, after recovering from a bout with malaria, flown to California and then eventually Fort Bragg, where he was reunited with his family at a nearby hospital.
read more here

Remains of Korean War POW Going Home

Remains of Minnesota soldier who died in Korean War prison camp coming home
Twin Cities News
By Helmut Schmidt
Forum News Service
POSTED: 02/18/2015

Shadow Salute by Wounded Times

GARY, Minn. -- After more than six decades, Sgt. Arnold Andring is finally coming home.

The Gary man, who fought in the Korean War and died as a prisoner of war, will be laid to rest with full military honors in April next to his mother and father in St. Michael's Cemetery in Mahnomen.

Andring's remains -- found amid 208 boxes holding the commingled remains of more than 400 soldiers -- were turned over by the North Koreans between 1991 and 1994.

His remains, stored at the Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii, were recently identified by experts using DNA testing.

For Andring's family, the news kindled a mix of long-buried sadness and relief.

"It's the end. It's a closure. We've been waiting for this for a long time," said Lucille Gish, one of Andring's five surviving siblings.

"I firmly believe it was a miracle. God was looking out for us. We're lucky," the 82-year-old Mahnomen woman said. "There are many boys who haven't been found out there yet."

"I just mostly blubbered" on the phone, Len Andring of Moorhead said of his initial talk on Jan. 22 with military officials.

Len Andring said the family always wondered if it was possible to find his brother's remains, but no one gave up hope.

"The Army has been great in keeping in touch," the 86-year-old said. "To go this far to honor their promise of bringing everyone home..." he said, his voice trailing off.
read more here

Former Vietnam POW Remembers 42nd Anniversary of Rescue

Former POW Lt. Bill Tschudy recalls captivity in Vietnam on anniversary of his freedom 
News Observer
By Paul A Specht
February 15, 2015

Retired Navy Cmdr. Bill Tschudy was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for more than seven years.

PAUL A. SPECHT

CARY — Until July 18, 1965, Navy Lt. Bill Tschudy was focused on performing his duty as a bombardier-navigator during the Vietnam War.

Tschudy remembers that mission shifting a bit, though, after he was shot down over a heavily defended bridge over the Ma River. As he abandoned the doomed A-6A Intruder jet, his parachute floated toward the middle of an enemy-controlled village.

“Your war now is survival,” he thought to himself.

His landing spot, an enemy trench, didn’t inspire confidence.

“I thought, ‘Oh, my God, I landed in a burial site,’ ” recalled Tschudy, with a laugh, in an interview at his Cary home.

Tschudy, then a married 30-year-old with a 6-month-old son, was captured quickly by North Vietnamese forces.

Then-Cmdr. Jeremiah Denton Jr., the late Alabama senator, was Tschudy’s pilot and also was captured. The two were imprisoned together and tortured for 7 1/2 years. The 42nd anniversary of their release was Thursday.

Time Magazine reported part of Tschudy’s story in a December 1970 issue that featured his face on the cover, and various national news outlets wrote stories after his release.
read more here

Black Hawk Helicopter Pilot Remains Found After 45 Years

Army finds Belmont veteran’s remains 45 years after disappearance
WSOC TV News
February 14, 2015

45 years after he disappeared during the Vietnam War.

Junior Price’s family told Channel 9 the Army found his remains a mile away from where his helicopter crashed.

Junior Price was 21 when he went to Vietnam. In 1970, he disappeared after his Black Hawk helicopter was shot down over Cambodia.

The news about his brother comes with mixed emotions for Dennis Price.

“They called us Monday, February 9, his birthday, and they told us it was 100 percent positive match that it was his remains,” Dennis Price said.

Dennis Price said the Army compared his brother’s DNA with his own and they matched perfectly. Junior’s remains had been buried along with two others.
read more here

Idaho Vietnam Veterans "brotherhood that looks after its own" and others

Local Vietnam Veterans Give Back 
KMVT News
By Ben Lyda
Jan 31, 2015

Twin Falls, Idaho ( KMVT-TV / KSVT-TV )

Being a veteran of war is being part of a brotherhood that looks after its own. One local group is doing everything it can to give back to those that have put their life on the line for others.

The Vietnam Vets and Legacy Vets Motorcycle Club seek out vets in need to help in any way possible and on a sunny afternoon in Twin Falls that is exactly what they did.

"Our mission is to help all veterans that we can. First of all we try to be accounted for all POW/MIA's that have never come home, we ride our bikes for the brothers and sisters who never made it back, who gave the ultimate sacrifice, but our goal is to help all veterans whenever we can”, explains

Bucky Gingell, state president of the Vietnam/Legacy Vets MC. Helping individuals such as Vietnam vet Don Gibson, who lost a leg and was in need of a new electric wheelchair.
read more here

Remains of Army Air Forces 1st Lt. James F. Gatlin of Jacksonville Home

Remains of fallen Florida aviator make it home after 70 years 
Tampa Bay Times
By Josh Solomon
Times Staff Writer
January 28, 2015

Four generations of a family gathered on the tarmac of Tampa International Airport Wednesday to welcome home the remains of a long-lost relative.

Nearly 70 years after being shot down over Germany during World War II, U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. James F. Gatlin of Jacksonville was coming home. "We've been waiting for this to happen," said Janda Fussell, 45, of Lithia, granddaughter of Gatlin's oldest surviving first cousin, Wilma Gatlin Shiver, 89.

Fussell never met Gatlin, obviously, but when she read about him and his death, she said she wept. 

"Even though we didn't know him, we've sort of invested ourselves in him. Especially since he was such a hero." Gatlin was co-piloting a B-26C Marauder on Dec. 23, 1944, when German fighters intercepted the plane on its way back from a bombing mission and shot it.

The plane caught fire and crashed near Ahrweiler, a west-German town, south of Cologne and west of Frankfurt, killing Gatlin. He was 25. read more here

Vietnam MIA Pilot Thomas Duffy Served 13 Years in Air Force Then as a Marine

Side Streets: MIA widow grateful to finally know how pilot husband died in Vietnam
The Gazette
Staff
December 21, 2014

"Duff had served 13 years in the Air Force, then transferred to the Marines for six more years until his death so he could fly the F-4. He served in Vietnam in 1967-68 before going back in 1971 for another tour of combat duty. If that doesn't qualify Duff as a hero, nothing does.

In fact, I think everyone in this story is a hero."

For 42 years, Ann Duffy wondered exactly what happened on April 27, 1972.

That was the day her husband, Thomas Duffy, went missing in action in Vietnam after the F-4 Phantom he was piloting went down over Da Nang bay.

About all Ann knew was that the radar/weapons officer in the backseat had ejected and survived.

But she never knew why "Duff," as she calls her husband, didn't make it out of the fighter jet. She didn't even know the circumstances of the incident. She assumed they were in combat and believed he had collided with a North Vietnamese plane.

"He went down over water, but I don't know what happened," Ann told me recently. "I didn't insist on his backseater getting in touch with us. They never even told me his name. I wish I had asked."

The voice of the 80-year-old widow trailed off.

"I always wanted to ask what happened," she said. "How did he get out alive and not Duff?"
read more here

Ret. Command Sergeant Major Thomas Colvin Wants to Honor All Veterans

Looks like I'm not the only one thinking all veterans should matter and not just the one making the news today.

"Only when proper recognition is given to veterans who have gone before us, will I be proud of a highway named in our honor." Command Sergeant Major (Retired) Thomas Colvin

Honor all veterans
Gadsdey Times
Published: Sunday, December 14, 2014

During its regular session in 2014, the state Senate passed SJR3. As the resolution read, “Naming a portion of United States Highway 411 from Etowah-St. Clair County line north to the intersection of United States Highway 411 and I-759 in Gadsden as the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Memorial Highway.”

As a veteran of Operation Desert Shield/Operation Desert Storm (1990-1991), Iraqi Freedom (2003) and Operation Enduring Freedom (2005-2008), I declare it unnecessary to do so. Why, you may ask, would you not want a highway named in our honor? As the resolution further states; “WHEREAS, it is fitting and proper that we show them that we shall not forget their service, sacrifice and dedication in protecting our nation.”
read more here

Watchfire Burns for the Missing

Watchfire Burns for those Missing in Action
Ithaca.com
By Chris Hooker
September 27, 2014

Remembering the Missing
ROTC members from three colleges showed up to light the symbolic beacon for missing soldiers on the shore of Cayuga Lake.

A bonfire burned brightly Friday night at Myers Point Park in Lansing, but to veterans everywhere, it was something much more symbolic.

Last week, September 19, the Finger Lakes Chapter #377 of the Vietnam Veterans of America held their 24th Annual Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Watch Fire at 7 p.m. The watch fire was held in commemoration of National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

The watch fire is an enormous bonfire that can be seen from afar, and especially across the lake from Myers Point Park. The watch fire aspect of National POW/MIA Recognition Day is not just a Lansing thing, as cities and towns all of America honor those who are still listed as a prisoner of war and missing in action in the same way.

"It’s the recognition of MIAs and POWs," said organizer Danny Baker, of Vietnam Veterans of America. "There are still people missing from Vietnam, Korea, World War II, Korea and Afghanistan. It’s just a way to bring attention that there are still people missing, so politicians won’t forget."
read more here

POW-MIA Day and the story few know

The Story of the POW/MIA Flag
HistoryNet
By Marc Leepson
Published Online: April 18, 2012

Heisley modeled the flag's silhouette on his 24-year-old son, who was on leave from the Marines and looking gaunt while getting over hepatitis. Heisley also penned the words that are stitched on the banner, "You are not forgotten."

Newt Heisley, with the POW/MIA flag he designed. (Copyright Don Jones Photography)

You see it everywhere—the stark, black-and-white POW/MIA flag—flying in front of VA hospitals, post offices and other federal, state and local government buildings, businesses and homes. It flaps on motorcycles, cars and pickup trucks. The flag has become an icon of American culture, a representation of the nation's concern for military service personnel missing and unaccounted for in overseas wars.

From the Revolution to the Korean War, thousands of U.S. soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors have been taken prisoner or gone missing. But it took the Vietnam War—and a sense of abandonment felt by wives and family members of Americans held captive—to bring forth what has evolved into the nation's POW/MIA symbol.

The POW/MIA flag is inextricably tied to the National League of POW/MIA Families, which was born in June 1969 as the National League of Families of American Prisoners in Southeast Asia. Its mission was to spread awareness of the mistreatment of POWs at the hands of their captors. It was the brainchild of Karen Butler, wife of Navy pilot Phillip Butler, who had been shot down over North Vietnam in April 1965, and Sybil Stockdale, whose husband, Navy Commander James Bond Stockdale, was the highest-ranking POW in North Vietnam. Stockdale had been held prisoner since September 1965, when his A-4 Skyhawk went down over North Vietnam.

In 1971, League member Mary Hoff came up with the idea of creating a flag as the group's symbol. Her husband, Navy pilot Lt. Cmdr. Michael Hoff, had been missing since January 7, 1970. Mary Hoff called the country's oldest and largest flag-maker, Annin Flagmakers of Verona, N.J.
read more here
Thanks Gunny for the link to this!

Presidential Proclamation --- National POW/MIA Recognition Day, 2014
NATIONAL POW/MIA RECOGNITION DAY, 2014
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

America's history shines with patriots who have answered the call to serve. From Minutemen who gathered on a green in Lexington to a great generation that faced down Communism and all those in our military today, their sacrifices have strengthened our Nation and helped secure more than two centuries of freedom. As our Armed Forces defend our homeland from new threats in a changing world, we remain committed to a profound obligation that dates back to the earliest days of our founding -- the United States does not ever leave our men and women in uniform behind. On National POW/MIA Recognition Day, we express the solemn promise of a country and its people to our service members who have not returned home and their families: you are not forgotten.

My Administration remains dedicated to accounting as fully as possible for our Nation's missing heroes, lost on battlefields where the sounds of war ceased decades ago and in countries where our troops are deployed today. Whether they are gone for a day or for decades, their absence is felt. They are missed during holidays and around dinner tables, and their loved ones bear this burden without closure. Americans who gave their last full measure of devotion deserve to be buried with honor and dignity, and those who are still unaccounted for must be returned to their families. We will never give up our search for them, and we will continue our work to secure the release of our citizens who are unjustly detained abroad. Today, we acknowledge that we owe a profound debt of gratitude to all those who have given of themselves to protect our Union and our way of life, and we honor them by working to uphold this sacred trust.

On September 19, 2014, the stark black and white banner symbolizing America's Missing in Action and Prisoners of War will be flown over the White House; the United States Capitol; the Departments of State, Defense, and Veterans Affairs; the

Selective Service System Headquarters; the World War II Memorial; the Korean War Veterans Memorial; the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; United States post offices; national cemeteries; and other locations across our country. We raise this flag as a solemn reminder of our obligation to always remember the sacrifices made to defend our Nation.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 19, 2014, as National POW/MIA Recognition Day. I urge all Americans to observe this day of honor and remembrance with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-ninth.

BARACK OBAMA

HEART TO HEART
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gives former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War, a hug after introducing him as the guest speaker at the 2014 National POW/MIA Recognition Ceremony at the Pentagon, Sept.19, 2014
DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Adrian Cadiz

POW-MIA Day, watchfires for the lost

Trucksville church group will light watch fires for veterans
National POW/MIA Recognition Day is Sept. 19
Times Leader
By Joe Sylvester
September 01. 2014

Ed Zimmerman, seen here, will be guest speaker at a National POW/MIA Recognition Day event in Trucksville on Sept. 19.

In war, watch fires were lit on hilltops and at the mouths of rivers after a battle, so those separated from their units could find their way back.

On Sept. 19, the “Remembering Our Veterans Memorial” group from Back Mountain Harvest Assembly of God Church, Carverton Road, Trucksville, will light a watch fire to spiritually guide home, remember and honor all the POW/MIA from America’s wars and conflicts, said John Tasco, who represents the group.

The lighting of the watch fire will take place on the church grounds at about 5:30 p.m. on that day, which is National POW/MIA Recognition Day. The ceremony will begin at 6:30 p.m. The ceremony will move into the church sanctuary if there is inclement weather.

“This year we will be featuring Ed Zimmerman as our guest speaker,” Tasco said.

Zimmerman, of Bear Creek Township, a Marine Corps and Vietnam veteran, traveled to Khe Sanh, Vietnam with a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, search team earlier this year to search for the remains of two Marines who were killed during the 77-day siege at Khe Sanh in early 1968. Zimmerman, who fought in the battle, will speak about his trip in June to Khe Sanh, where he helped locate the spot where the remains of the two Marines may be found.
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Also St. Charles Missouri
Second Annual Watchfire to be held on Sept. 19 at the Veterans Memorial


New Jersey
24th Annual POW/MIA Watchfire

Date/Time - 09/20/2014, 7:00 pm
Location Beachside on Heiring Ave, Heiring Ave, Seaside Heights, NJ,
SAL Detachment of NJ – 12 hour vigil. 7pm -7am. Beachside at Heiring Ave., Seaside Heights, NJ.

83,000 Americans still missing from past conflicts

DOD: New POW/MIA accounting agency to open in January
Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
Published: July 15, 2014

The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. JPAC's mission is to conduct global search, recovery and laboratory operations to identify unaccounted-for Americans form past conflicts.
JON DASBACH/U.S. NAVY

WASHINGTON — Defense Department officials testified Tuesday that the new agency to replace the troubled POW/MIA accounting community in charge of recovering and repatriating the remains of troops killed in past conflicts will be stood up on Jan. 1.

The agency will consolidate the work of the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office and the Joint Personnel Accounting Command as ordered by the secretary of defense in February, said Michael Lumpkin, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict.

Lumpkin testified before the House Armed Services’ military personnel subcommittee, which for years has pressed for reform and in 2009 helped pass a congressional mandate that the DOD recover at minimum of 200 remains annually beginning next year.

On Tuesday, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., chairman of the House subcommittee, said he was pleased that the DOD is moving ahead with the changes.

“What a positive report — that is very unusual in Congress,” he said.

The DOD efforts to recover 83,000 Americans still missing from past conflicts have so far fallen far below the goal set by Congress and been dogged by incompetence and dysfunction, including claims agencies ignored leads, arguing against identifying remains in government custody, desecrated and mishandled of remains, and failed to keep critical records.
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Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl captive since 2009 released by Taliban

Freed Soldier Bowe Bergdahl's Idaho Town Plans Celebratory Homecoming
NBC News

HAILEY, Idaho — The news Saturday of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's release from captivity spread quickly in his hometown in southern Idaho, and residents immediately began making plans for a welcome-home celebration.

An annual event called "Bring Bowe Back" scheduled for June 28 was quickly renamed "Bowe is Back."

"It is going to be Bowe's official welcome-home party even if he's not quite home yet," organizer Stefanie O'Neill said Saturday.

Bergdahl, 28, had been held prisoner by the Taliban since June 30, 2009.

In Hailey, a town of 7,000 residents just down the road from upscale Sun Valley, residents have hung yellow ribbons from trees and utility poles and planted a tree in a local park each year since he was held. Signs reading "Bring Bowe Home" were placed in shop windows.
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Bones from Southeast Asian buried in Arlington grave with MIA remains

This sounds even to strange for an episode of Bones

Documents reveal Southeast Asian remains buried with US vet at Arlington
Stars and Stripes
By Matthew M. Burke
Published: April 21, 2014

Remains from an indigenous Southeast Asian were buried with those of an Army Reserve pilot from the Vietnam War at Arlington National Cemetery, America’s shrine for its fallen heroes.

According to internal POW/MIA documents, when the remains of Chief Warrant Officer 3 William Smith Jr. were turned over to investigators in Vietnam in 1999, a portion belonged to someone else.

Central Identification Laboratory documents stated that the unrelated remains had been identified and segregated from those of the pilot and that only Smith’s remains were shipped to Arlington for burial.

However, an internal memo from the laboratory obtained by Stars and Stripes said that did not happen.

After a ceremony that included a slow march, a horse-drawn caisson and a lone bugler, Smith was buried with foreign remains.

Laboratory anthropologist Gwen Guinan wrote in the internal memo that “subsequent to the shipment and the burial’’ it was discovered that a fragment of a leg bone that should have been separated from Smith’s remains “had been inadvertently included.’’ The memo, addressed to “record” and included in Smith’s case file, was dated Sept. 20, 2000, 12 days after Smith was buried.
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VIetnam Veteran Riding 2,000 miles on scooter for POW-MIAs

2,000 miles for vets, 71-year-old sets sights on scooter ride to Florida
St. George News
Written by Aspen Stoddard
April 5, 2014

Vietnam veteran Raymond M. Black stands in front of his electric scooter, J.C. Snow Park, St. George, Utah, April 5, 2014
Photo by Aspen Stoddard, St. George News

ST. GEORGE - Vietnam War veteran Raymond M. Black was joined by friends and family at J.C. Snow Park in St. George Saturday afternoon for a barbecue bidding farewell to the 71-year-old who plans to set out in 10 days, riding to Florida on a scooter adorned with flags and placards. His goal is to raise awareness for POWs and MIAs and raise funds to help Veterans nationwide.

Dressed in an orange shirt and shorts, black-leather vest embellished with colorful patches, knee-high yellow and orange striped socks and a baseball cap in army camouflage print, Black placed a hot dog on his plate and enjoyed the company as he told of his plans to depart from home around 6:30 a.m. on April 15.

His traveling style is slightly unorthodox. Black will cruise over 2,000 miles on his rechargeable Pride Pursuit XL Scooter adorned with 14 American flags, one Vietnam-American flag, stuffed bears (one of them named “Freedom”), a cooler filled to the brim with root beer and a Utah Jazz stuffed monkey.
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Two agencies become one for remains of missing U.S. war dead

Hagel announces restructuring of POW/MIA remains offices
Stars and Stripes
By Chris Carroll
Published: March 31, 2014

WASHINGTON — A single Pentagon office will now be in charge of the troubled effort to identify and recover the remains of missing U.S. war dead, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Monday.

The order will create a “single accountable organization that has complete oversight of personnel accounting resources, research and operations,” overseen by the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Hagel said.

The decision follows a series of damning reports in the past year about the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, the two agencies that had primary responsibility for MIA recovery efforts. The two will now be combined, along with certain functions of the Air Force’s Life Sciences Equipment Laboratory, Hagel said.

To improve the search, identification and recovery process, DOD will create a centralized database and case management system containing all missing servicemembers’ information, Hagel said. The Armed Forces Medical Examiner working for the new agency will be the single identification authority. The medical examiner will oversee the science operations of the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, as well as satellite labs in Omaha, Neb., and Dayton, Ohio.

Families of the missing — who Hagel admitted have not always received clear communications from DOD — will also have a single point of contact with the new agency to make it easier for them to learn about search and identification activities.
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Vietnam War POW Jeremiah Denton Jr. passed away at 89

Jeremiah A. Denton Jr., Vietnam POW and U.S. senator, dies
Washington Post
By Emily Langer
Updated: Friday, March 28, 2014

Jeremiah A. Denton Jr., a retired Navy rear admiral and former U.S. senator who survived nearly eight years of captivity in North Vietnamese prisons, and whose public acts of defiance and patriotism came to embody the sacrifices of American POWs in Vietnam, died March 28 at a hospice in Virginia Beach. He was 89.

The cause was complications from a heart ailment, said his son Jim Denton. Adm. Denton was a native of Alabama, where in 1980 he became the state’s first Republican to win election to the Senate since Reconstruction.
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Denton is featured in Two Men, Two Fates about Vietnam POWs on Stars and Stripes.

More than 700 servicemembers became prisoners of war in Vietnam.

None endured longer than Floyd James Thompson and Everett Alvarez Jr.

The two men represent the extremes of the POW experience -- in captivity and in life. By Chris Carroll

Denton Jr. Blinking Morse Code 'T-O-R-T-U-R-E'