Politics

Congressman pushes to declassify information on missing soldiers

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In an attempt to bring closure to military families, North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter Jones is pushing for the declassification of information related to missing and unaccounted-for military members from modern conflicts through the Cold War.

“It has been almost 50 years since the Vietnam War, and I have felt for a long time that the families who still have questions as to what happened to their loved one have every right to know,” Jones told The Daily Caller.

Jones introduced a resolution last week calling on the Department of Defense to declassify information pertaining “to any member of the Armed Forces who is missing and unaccounted for from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, or the Cold War,” unless it deals with current intelligence information. Jones hopes that the House will bring it up for a vote early next year.

“I think to me it is something that is so simple and considerate of the gift a family gave when they lost a loved one whether they be POWs or MIAs,” Jones said.

According to Jones, there are 125 members of the military that are unaccounted for from the Cold War, 1,679 from the Vietnam War, 7,978 from the Korean War and 73,690 from World War II.

“I could see where their might be sensitive information from the Gulf War or Iraq, but 50 years later I don’t see why there would be any sensitive information there and again,” Jones said, adding that “if families have the interest and the desire to know what happened to their family member and loved one, they should have that information. I don’t see any excuse if there is a reason then fine, but I doubt it and particularly in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam.”

Maj. Carie A. Parker, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense’s POW/Missing Personnel Office, told TheDC that DPMO has been working to reach Jones’ desired outcome since 1991 and have declassified over a million documents that are placed in the Library of Congress for the public to see. (RELATED: Air Force faces litigation for ‘illegal termination’ of 157 officers)

“While there is some information that contain matters of privacy, recovery procedures and intelligence-gathering protocols that need to be protected, we are working to reclassify, redact and release the rest to POW/MIA families, veterans and the public,” Parker wrote in an email. “This extensive undertaking continues to be accomplished along with the primary mission of accounting for 83,000 missing American service members from all wars since WWII.”

Jones’ legislation would put the effort into overdrive, eliminating obstacles to families seeking information and providing the initiative with “sufficient” personnel, funding and expectations — such as expanding world-wide recovery efforts and notifying next of kin.

“I think it is sad that families have waited 50, 60, 70 years,” said Jones. “I had a young man in here from New York looking for information on his father who was missing in the Korean War — and this is not the reason I put it in. But I will say that that discussion with him, which was about three months ago, really planted the seed and it just has preyed on my mind that families that desire to have some closure… they can’t get it unless these agencies work with them.”

Jones has the support of The National League of POW/MIA Families’ board of directors, History Flight and the National Coalition of Korean War Families. According to the North Carolina congressman, there will be a more formal roll-out of his initiative at the beginning of next year.

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