My father, Lt. Col. Gerald Emerson Montgomery, age 29, veteran of WWII, fighter pilot, and Deputy Operations Officer of the 136th Fighter Bomber Wing of the 5th Air Force became missing in action on March 3, 1952. His F-84 Thunderjet was hit by anti aircraft artillery while on a "routine interdiction mission" in North Korea. Notified by wingmen that his plane was on fire, he successfully bailed out and landed in the Ch'ong-Ch'on River. He was seen standing in shallow water. He first waived to his squadron flying low over him in the water, indicating he was okay. He was observed bringing in his parachute when suddenly, he was no longer visible. As the squadron continued to sweep the area for enemy troops, they radioed headquarters for rescue personnel to be dispatched to the area. It was noted that he could have easily walked out of the shallow river, as he landed near exposed mud flats. No one is sure what happened to him. Some were convinced he could not have survived the frigid waters, while others were convinced he had drowned. But the members of his squadron were equally convinced he survived and was hiding.

Shortly after his shoot down, my mother and grandparents received numerous letters from his superiors and fellow airmen with details of his incident. The members of his squadron flying the mission with him that day gave written statements regarding the incident claiming they were certain he survived and walked out of the water. Other than notices from various departments within the Air Force regarding the forwarding of his personal effects, paychecks and instructions on forms to be returned by my mother, no other official word was received regarding his loss. On February 10, 1953, we received the message, "In light of the fact that no further information had been received and whose survival is no longer considered possible, it is "with regret" that you must be notified of the termination of missing status of Lt. Col. Gerald E. Montgomery." Officially, he was KIABNR, otherwise known as "Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered". Case officially closed.

Not wanting to loose hope that some day he would come home, my mother never remarried and passed away in 1997. In 1987 my grandfather passed away. My grandmother passed away in 1993 shortly before I received my father's Casualty Report, and a copy of his Case Status Card. The Case Status Card was copied front and back and forwarded to me at my request. To my horror, handwritten on the back of the card was "Reported Unofficial POW, M/L 1370, B-1-3, T-C-G. None of this information was ever conveyed to my mother or grandparents. Although my mother and grandfather had written numerous letters to the Air Force, Department of Defense, and Texas Senators and Congressmen, pleading for any information about my father, they were never told that additional information had been received about him. They protested his declaration of death and tried in vein to have his name placed on lists being passed to the North Koreans by the United Nations Command. Along with my father, their pleas and protests were ignored and forgotten.

After receiving his case status card, I immediately began working to find out what the numbers and letters on the card meant, and why he was reported "Unofficial POW". Of course, after nearly 50 years, there was no one in the archives, the Defense Department, Air Force or Mortuary Affairs who knew the answers to my questions or the location of information that would unravel this puzzle piece. Frustrated, I traveled to Washington, D.C. to comb the records in repository at the National Archives. Even though numerous archivists before me had searched through various boxes of documents, including the ones I read, there before me was part of the answer. Declassified documents from Mortuary Affairs of the Far East Forces for the Korean War revealed that additional information received regarding missing servicemen was coded, the serviceman placed on a master list, and carried in an "unofficial" status. The keys to the codes were also there explaining how the information was received, the source of the information, and on which lists the MIA was placed. Other documents further explained that while the Army was in charge of all mortuary affairs for all services, each branch of the service maintained their own master lists. It also explained that the Air Force created their own codes and maintained the keys to their codes. Unfortunately, the Air Force documents were not among the Mortuary Affairs records. I have been able to determine from the Army codes that his name was given over radio propaganda broadcasts probably originating out of Pyongyang, North Korea and Beijing, China. To this day, I am still looking for the Air Force codes and master lists.

There are 866 unknown graves from the Korean War buried at the Punch Bowl Cemetery in Hawaii. Additionally, North Korea unilaterally returned approximately 200 remains in early 1990's. Currently, joint excavation of remains believed to be missing US servicemen is underway in North Korea. Of these remains, only a hand full have been identified and returned to their families. Part of the difficulty in positively identifying Korean War remains lies in incomplete or inaccurate personnel records. I found a letter my father wrote to my mother shortly before he was shot down. He wrote that he had flown to a base in Japan to have dental work done. He had several cavities in his teeth filled at the air base. Although the casualty office requested medical and dental records from the numerous bases at which my father had been stationed, none of the dental records from the Japanese base were included in his personnel file. I wrote to the Air Force Casualty Office requesting these records be located and included in his file. I included a copy of the letter he had written. A copy of my letter and the letter he wrote have been included in his file, however, there has been no attempt made to locate the missing records. I have written, called and publicly requested that an attempt be made to locate the records to no avail. I understand that all work can not cease in order to look for one man's missing information. But, there is a bigger issue. The issue is that if his records are incomplete, then certainly there are others whose records are incomplete. Some families received inquiries from the Army Casualty Office, shortly after the armistice was signed, requesting any additional medical, dental or distinguishing identification information about their missing loved one. My family did not receive such a request, and it is highly probable that a large number of families of men missing from the Korean War were not asked to provide additional information either. How then, will they be able to begin to identify remains returned from North Korea?

Among the 8,211 men still missing from the Korean War, my father's case is only unique to my sister and me. However, the position my family has been in for the past 50 years is not unique. The families of those still missing wonder why we have to continue our own search; why we have to secure our own information; and why we have to champion the cause to begin with. I keep asking the same questions over and over again hoping I will learn more about the fate of my father. In turn, the answers may help other families as well. These questions and answers must help change Defense Department policy regarding servicemen missing in action. When our servicemen are called to action or asked to defend our country, their families must not suffer the same emptiness and despair if their loved ones are lost. We must never again have a conflict whose legacy is known as "The Forgotten War".