90 Day Wonder

Thousands of WWII MIAs

Congressman Lipinski of Illinois has sent a letter to each of his colleagues in the House of Representatives urging them to support his request of the Department of Defense to greatly increase the recovery of the remains of WWII MIAs, tens of thousands of whom still lie where they fell, in unmarked graves, --in Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Okinawa, the Palaus, the Marianas--during the Pacific  War. Please write or phone your Congressman, telling him/her to support Lipinski. Time is of the essence.  The relatives of these dead, eg., the wives, brothers, sisters, nephews et al, will themselves be dead before long. Who will then claim the remains of these honored dead?
NB The Department of Defense recovers about 100 MIAs per year from all US wars, Korea, Vietnam and WWII, although WWII is more than 90%  of the total number of MIAs (90,000)  Doesn't that make you angry? Don't you want to do something about this disgrace?

A summing up & a new direction

I feel pretty good, but am far from feeling smug about it...My efforts and those of others helping me have finally resulted in Congress getting off its ass in directing the Pentagon to repatriate the remains of the hundreds of guys who still lie in Tarawa sixty-six years later, after the battle of "Bloody Tarawa," during November, 1943. (That doesn't mean, of course, that the military will actually do it.).

I'm in the process of setting up a non-profit corporation that will receive charitable contributions--for tax credit--to finance my filmed visit to a number of Pacific War battlefields, e,g., Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Okinawa, Palau and other sites. The purpose: to show compelling evidence that the remains of the fallen are still there, e.g., the tail assembly of the downed plane, the dogtags or other evidence of the remains of the MIA, what natives in the area concerned can tell us about the dead American, etc. Five films in all will be produced at a cost of 1 million, a significant part of which to defray the cost of private jet flights to many of the battle sites, sites that simply can't be reached by comercial flights.

Readers of my blogs will recall that almost 80,000 WWII MIAs from WWII are still "there," where they fell in battles in Europe and in the Pacific. The Pentagon admits that upwards of 35,000 are "recoverable." That doesn't mean that the Military will make an effort to recover these guys. In fact,  I've just learned that 3,000 WWII MIAs have been recently identified, including the exact location of their remains, along with other information that will permit their speedy repatriation, but this will not be done because there ain't any money to pay for the effort.,

What the hell...Nearly all of the Viet Nam MIAs have been recovered and repatriated--thanks to the nation-wide campaign during the 70's to recover them--"You Are Not Forgotten"--Remember?

Unlike Viet Nam and Iraq, too, for that matter--and similarly unpopular and unnecessary wars, it''s generally ackmnowledged that WWII was a "necessary" and even a "popular" in the sense that virtually the entire nation was involved. The anomaly remains: in dumb wars, we recover the dead. In good wars--the hell with the "Greatest Generation."

Persistence

"Great works are performed not by strength but by persistence," is a statement by Samuel Johnson that has guided me in my efforts to return home the dead of WWII, thousands of whom still lie where they fell.

For example...

Some members of Congress recently viewed my documentary, "Return to Tarawa-the Leon Cooper Story," As a result, this past month the House of Representatives passed a Resolution declaring it to be the "Sense of Congress" that the Department of Defense should send a team of investigators to Tarawa to search for the remains of those who still lie there and then begin their repatriation. The Resolution was sent to the President and to officials of his Administration.

This past month the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors sent a Resolution to the President urging similar action, incidentally, honoring me for my military service and also for my activities since then.

Currently pending before a House of Representatives appropriations committee is language awaiting a $ amount-- to be filled in later--calling for the investigation, discovery and repatriation of WWII MIAs.

The garbage on Red Beach in Tarawa may be cleaned up later this year as plans are underway to install the "state-of-the-art" incinerator I had recommended in my "Action Program for Tarawa." When installed, this incinerator system it would prevent garbage on the beaches and elsewhere from being swept out to sea, destroying marine life. Ironically, the incinerator program and other action I had recommended is being funded by New Zealand, not by our country.

I'm continuing to publicize my efforts: The Army Times and all other Service newspapers are carrying a feature story about my efforts. In other words, more 500,000 newspapers in 100 countries are featuring the story.

The Tokyo Journal has an article about me..."World War II combat veteran is fighting a different battle."