Page 12 - Malvern Daily Record Friday, September 16, 2016

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City of Rockport, Arkansas

Remembering the POW/MIA

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National

DAY

National POW/MIA Recognition Day honors prisoners of war and our missing and their families, and highlights the government’s commitment to account for them.

83,000 still unaccounted forThe Defense POWMIA

Accounting Agency has a mission to provide the fullest accounting possible for all missing military personnel from past conflicts to the fam-ilies of the missing, as well as to the nation.

Missing personnel from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War and

other recent conflicts are re-flected in the group’s mission.

The DPAA works with hundreds of countries and municipalities around the world through research and operational missions.

More than 83,000 military personnel are still missing from conflicts dating back to World War II.

Of that 83,000, roughly 75 percent of the losses were in the Asia-Pacific theater.

Approximately 41,000 of the missing are presumed lost at sea.

World War II accounts for the vast majority of the miss-ing with a number greater than 73,000 (20,000 of which were in the European theater) still unaccounted for.

There are nearly 8,000 still missing from the Korean War and more than 1,600 missing from the Vietnam War.

By Eric MoorE

Staff Writer

Recovery teams continue to bring missing soldiers back home to USA

Recovery teams con-tinue to learn the fates of missing soldiers.

In 2001, a joint recov-ery operation between the United States and Korean People’s Army identified Corporal Joseph Trepasso.

Corporal Joseph Trepas-so went missing in the Ko-rean War in 1950. Trepasso was a part of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Di-vision in North Korea when the Chinese People’s Vol-unteer Forces (CPVF) at-tacked. The unit withdrew south to the Pungnyuri In-let. Several soldiers were captured and sent to POW camps. Trepasso was de-clared missing.

The same recovery team identified Army Sergeant 1st Class Louis M. Baxter.

Baxter served with Headquarters Battery, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 31st Regimental Combat Team, 7th Infantry Divi-sion. The unit fought near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea when the CPVF attacked. The unit withdrew to the Pungnyuri Inlet and several soldiers were captured and sent to POW camps. Baxter was declared missing as a result of the battle.

In 2001, a joint recovery operation by United States and North Korean recovery teams searched the Chosin

Reservoir and recovered remains of several soldiers. One of those identified was Army Corporal Donald R Hendrickson.

Hendrickson went miss-ing from the Korean War in 1950. He served with the Headquarters Battery, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 31st Regimental Combat Team, 7th Infantry Divi-sion near the Chosin Reser-voir in North Korea. Heavi-ly outnumbered by Chinese forces, they were forced to withdraw.

The same operation also identified Army Corporal Vernon D. Presswood.

Presswood served with the 32nd Infantry Regi-ment, 7th Infantry Division. Faced with overwhelming numbers of Chinese forc-es during the Korean War, east of the Chosin Reser-voir, Presswood’s unit ini-tiated a fighting withdraw. Presswood was declared MIA.

In 2005, a joint recov-ery team visited a province in North Korea reported to contain American Remains and identified Corporal Wayne Minyard.

Corporal Wayne Min-yard was a member of Company C, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, and fought the CPVF in North Korea in 1950 in a delaying action. When his regiment

was located in defense po-sitions near the Chongchon River, Minyard was report-ed missing.

Also in 2005, a joint field activity excavated a site south of the Puk-chin-Tarigol POW camp and recovered human re-mains, including the re-mains of Army Corporal David T. Nordin Jr.

Nordin served with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division during the Korean War in 1950. While on their way to establish a position as part of a United Nations command offensive, the unit encountered a count-er attack by the CPVF and was ordered to withdraw to a new defensive line. Nor-din was reported MIA.

Advances in technology allowed the United States to identify the remains Pri-vate Fist Class Kenneth Miller. The remains of sev-eral fallen soldiers were re-turned to the United States in 1954 as part of “Opera-tion Glory” and were ex-humed for testing as tech-nology advanced.

Miller served with Com-pany K, 3rd Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. His unit fought the Chinese Com-munist Forces during the Korean War and was forced to withdraw and Miller was reported MIA.

These missing soldiers were identified with a com-bination of lab analysis and circumstantial evidence.

The United States con-tinues identifying fallen Korean War soldiers and even World War II soldiers.

Hero for heroes passes on By Dana KEEnEr

Staff Writer

On Aug. 18, 2016, Gen. (Ret.) John W. Vessey, Jr. passed away at the age of 94. Vessey had a long and produc-tive career serving in the U.S. Army. He began his presti-gious career before America’s involvement in World War II. Vessey’s strong desire to

serve his country drove him to lie about his age in order to enlist into the Minnesota Army National Guard. Most of his career was spent on bat-tlefields. He fought in WWII, Vietnam, and in South Korea where he began commanding forces during the latter part of the 1970’s.

After serving more than 46 years, he retired from the Army

as the 10th Chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff in 1985. After his retirement, President Ronald Reagan appointed him as special envoy to Vietnam in effort to account for Amer-icans that had been missing since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. This appoint-ment led Vessey to take up the task of reuniting families that had been separated during the

Vietnam conflict. He also was instrumental in obtaining the release of former Southern Vietnamese leaders from pris-on camps, American-Asian children from Vietnam, and refugees living in Vietnamese camps in Cambodia.

This work earned him the Presidential Medal of Free-dom from President George H. W. Bush.