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Coalition Members Meet with DPMO
by:
Coalition President
Robin Piacine
Coalition Board Member, John Zimmerlee, and I met with LTC Eva Webb-Sharpless and several
other members of the DPMO Staff in Crystal City. The purpose of the meeting was to review
on-going operations, and to reinforce the needs of our family members as well as discuss
the goals of the Coalition.
We met James C. Wong, Commander, US Navy, Director, and Archival Research Directorate.
On 13 October, Commander Wong met and talked to Chinese representatives regarding 3
operations next year include: One Korean War case, the Kope case and a WWII case.
Research proposals were handed over to the Chinese regarding WWII, Korea and Cold War
which involves the Peoples Liberation Army. U.S. Commander Wong will return in February
to request responses from the proposals.
As a result of the latest 2003 recovery operations in North Korea, 8 sets of remains have been
found, 7 of which were found in the Chosin Reservoir area and one from the Unsan County area.
April of 2004, recovery operations will resume in North Korea and will continue until October
of 2004. During this time, five sets of operations will be conducted at two locations.
We also met with some of the staff members who work at NARA. It was reported that in the future
we may see the use of Army Reserve Units to assist in the archival work during their annual 2-week
training. The purpose of this would be to compile PMKOR and clusters of military cases with similar
losses.
Progress continues in other countries to release files. In Warsaw, meeting minutes are in the process
of being de-classified that include Chinese observations related to transfer of prisoners.
We are awaiting a full response to the issues presented at our November meeting and will be reporting
on the progress in our next newsletter. Some of the issues addressed are requests of the following:
- Receipt of a “no” list which would include those family members who specifically requested not to
have records made available regarding their servicemen to other family members. This is a
critical document that will aid our researchers, especially when there may be justification
needed for weekend research. Why? Documents containing names shouldn’t be withheld from researchers
unless a family member objects.
- Explore the option for attendees of regional and national updates to allow us to receive their
contact information so we can send them information compiled from research files, etc. as we locate it.
- Requested conversation with DPMO personnel regarding future plans so we can provide input and possible
support depending on the outcome of the information.
- Consider ways in which we can assist DPMO with the answers for our family members.
The Coalition appreciates the time that was set aside to meet with us regarding these very important
issues. We are looking forward to again discussing the proposals set forth with DPMO so we can work
together with them to achieve a common goal.
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