Nephew Yearns for Help · Nephew Yearns for Help, page 3
Nephew Yearns for Help
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Vietnam focus
Part of their frustration involves the emphasis JPAC has long placed on finding Vietnam MIAs. After the war, the families of Vietnam veterans evolved into a vocal and powerful group demanding the return of their missing loved ones, says Douglas Walker of New Canaan, Conn., part of the same group as Snyder.
His father, Brig. Gen. Kenneth Walker, became the highest-ranking World War II MIA lost in combat when he went missing during a bombing mission of Japanese shipping lanes at Rabaul, New Britain, in January 1943.
"They started out with a legitimate demand, to go into Southeast Asia and look for MIAs that were not recovered," Walker says of JPAC. "But now they have three detachments full time in Southeast Asia, and we'd like to see them spread their efforts around more. I think there could be no more than 1,200 Vietnam MIAs that are recoverable. And World War II has what, 35,000, 38,000?"
Snyder says family members of soldiers didn't question the government's efforts 60 years ago to find the missing. They just accepted what they were told. But Vietnam-era soldiers' families have demanded and received more accountability from their government.
The Department of Defense's published strategy today for recovering and accounting for missing personnel includes the authorization of 18 recovery teams - 10 dedicated to those missing in Southeast Asia, five dedicated to Korean War missing, and three to Americans missing from World War II.
For planning purposes, the level of effort expended by conflict is 65 percent for the Vietnam War, 20 percent for the Korean War and 15 percent for World War II, the Defense Department says.
But Larry Greer, a spokesman for the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, says that the money spent looking for MIAs is not divided that way.
"Our budget is not carved up in specific percentages by conflict," Greer says. "Because the operational situation is dynamic, specific percentages may vary from year to year."
Maj. Brian DeSantis, chief of community relations for JPAC, says his agency recognizes the need to expand its efforts in the area of World War II and Korea. In fact, it has received more money - including the hiring of more historians in 2001 - to expand and enhance efforts.
But family members remain skeptical.
Looking on their own
The flood of relatives looking for their missing World War II service members grew dramatically with the advent of the Internet. Military records became accessible on the Web. Northern Plains residents could easily reach out via e-mail to historians and researchers in Europe, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. And folks such as Snyder and Ranfranz became adept at making Freedom of Information requests.
Armed with such information, families began conducting their own searches. In the fall of 2005 - and again almost exactly a year later - Ranfranz flew to the island of Yap with his wife, Cherie, to search for his uncle's missing plane.
With files of research and the help of Yapese natives, including local chieftains, Ranfranz documented 33 American plane wrecks from World War II on or near an island that is 16 miles long and four miles wide. He documented the 149 men lost on those missions and the 110 still missing after the war.
Continued Nephew Yearns for Help, page 3
Copyright 2006 nopukob.com
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