Defense Salutes POW/MIAs

by Alice A. Booher

The Department of Defense (DOD)’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs (DPMO) traditionally hosts a POW/MIA Prayer Breakfast in Washington on the 1st Thursday of February.  The 8th such event, on 7 February 2002, was held at Crystal (City) Gateway Marriott, Arlington, VA, adjacent to The Pentagon and virtually atop the site of casualty operations following 9/11.  Host, The Hon. Jerry D. Jennings, and all 200 guests were viscerally aware of the import. The tone was set by Kristi English, a talented singer/songwriter, with “Amazing Grace”, “America The Beautiful”, and her extraordinary new ballad, “We Shall Endure”, [recently recorded on CD, and available as background to slide presentations] accompanied by stunning DOD slides of American military personnel and equipment, international recovery efforts re: remains of missing personnel, the Heroes of 9/1 and the Afghan War.  As is customary, a literal spotlight was placed on a “Missing Person Table”, with white cloth, blue napkin, red rose, salt and lemon, traditionally set for those who are not yet home. 

The well-balanced, unique program created by DPMO’s Peggy Marish-Boos, included two speakers.  The first was tall, direct Stacey Willams Andrews, who met Bill Andrews when he was at the USAF Academy.  Married to him for 21 years with 3 kids, this slightly nervous but composed statuesque woman determinedly described their unique experience as a POW/MIA family when Bill was shot down in his F-16 over Iraq in Operation Desert Storm.  She shared of their love and faith, then and since his captivity; he is now deployed in Operation Enduring Freedom as Vice Wing Commander, 366th Air Expeditionary Wing. 

Secretary Jennings welcomed, and was warmly welcomed by, the crowd.  He had endeared himself to many in the audience when a month after confirmation, in September 2001, he had flown to Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam meetings and digs to strengthen ties with those countries whose cooperation with the Army’s Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii (CILHI) and DOD’s Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA) is paramount to successful recovery of missing personnel.  He remarked that “time is not on our side, but we will deal with cases from all wars from the past 50 years and we’re getting results.”  Reports of recent finds confirm that.  Compounded efforts are underway to secure additional mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) so that remains recovered and to be claimed in the future from WWII and Korea can be fully identified.

 The second speaker was the dynamic 28th Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Paul Wolfowitz, whose reputation for effective leadership and forceful, articulate communications is unexcelled.  The brilliant Cornell mathematician and University of Chicago Ph.D., now #2 at DOD, but with a history of myriad Pentagon leadership roles, and former Ambassador to Indonesia, spoke in a confident but unconvoluted manner belying his lofty professorial past at Yale, Johns Hopkins and as George F. Kennan Professor of National Security Strategy at the National War College.  He paid tribute to some in the audience including military brass, and others such as The Hon. Robin Higgins, Department of Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs, former Marine and widow of Col Rich Higgins, USMC, who was held captive and then murdered by the Hezbollah in Lebanon.  Also recognized were senior civilian members of the intelligence community, DOD and State, and 5 former POWs, Thomas Hanton and The Hon. Orson Swindle (Vietnam); L. Norman Forry (Korea); and William Tippens and Milton Young (WWII).  Not surprisingly, Wolfowitz, was direct and unequivocal in his commitment to current military activities and forcefully supportive of the efforts of Secretary Jennings’s staff and projects.  The program cited Wolfowitz as he represented DOD at the Memorial Service for the 7 Americans and 9 Vietnamese who died in 7 April 2001 with the crash of their MI-17 helicopter in Vietnam: “They were embarked on a mission of peace - to return lost warriors home to those who love them.”  He also paid special tribute to those who work in the many recovery teams worldwide.

 The DPMO’s fitting symbol is “Keeping the Promise”, lapel pin replicas of which were provided as favors.  The combined force of the private faith and sustenance of Stacey Andrews, as a POW spouse; and the power and personal conviction and commitment in Wolfowitz’ message was not lost on the rapt and quiet mixed audience of military, civilian, ex-POWs and families including of many missing.  The ongoing total accounting for all military personnel, recovery of those missing from military conflicts in years past and the support for those now so engaged must be a seamless combined effort.  Those present at this annual DOD tribute were never more certain of both that sacred trust and firm obligation. 

Photos:

(1)  The DPMO logo, “Keeping the Promise”. 

(2) The Hon. Jerry Jennings; and Stacey Andrews, wife of former POW, USAF pilot Bill Andrews.