Expressing Thanks of the House to American POW/MIAs on National POW/Mia Recognition Day

EXPRESSING THANKS OF THE HOUSE TO AMERICAN POW/MIAs ON NATIONAL POW/MIA RECOGNITION DAY -- (House of Representatives - September 15, 2004)

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 771) expressing the thanks of the House of Representatives and the Nation for the contributions to freedom made by American POW/MIAs on National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 771.

As we remember our POW and MIAs, I want to share with my colleagues the text of a speech I recently delivered to a conference in Honolulu sponsored by the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies and the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO). At this conference were representatives from our own country as well as five countries of Asia, including Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.

Mr. Speaker, I urge swift passage of this important resolution and continued strong Congressional support for the DPMO.

[End Insert]

U.S. POW/MIA Accounting Efforts: Process and Operations, August 11, 2004

Thank you, Department of Defense Assistant Secretary Jennings, for your very kind introduction.

Thank you also to Dr. Whitley, General Stackpole (who has contributed so much to Hawaii), and General Whitfield, or "Q," the Commander of our Joint Personnel Operating Command, located just down the road.

And please allow me to introduce my wife, Audrey, and my staff assistant, Jackie Conant, both of whose ancestral roots, like so many of Hawaii's people, lie with you in Asia.

But most of all, Mingalar Par, Zdravstvuite, and Chao ong, or Aloha! Welcome to Hawaii, and Mahalo!, or thank you, to each of you for joining us at this vitally important conference this week, Your simple presence tells the people of my country everything about the commitment of your countries and peoples to assisting us all in finding, identifying and repatriating the sailors, soldiers, marines, airmen and civilians of our country currently unaccounted for throughout Asia.

I am ED CASE and I am a Member of the Congress of the United States, I directly represent 650,000 Americans living in Hawaii's great Second District, which includes all eight of Hawaii's major islands, as well as the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands all the way past Midway Island to Kure Atoll.

Under our system of governance, we have three separate, independent and coequal branches of federal government: our executive branch, headed by our President; our legislative branch, made up of me and my colleagues in congress; and our judicial branch, headed by our Supreme Court. From beyond our shores, it often looks like a pretty messy system, as we argue and disagree in public over what we should do and not do, and as we contest elections for our presidency and for Congress.

Many of our deepest disagreements and our elections have been and are about whether and under what circumstances we should have taken or we should take military action beyond our shores, as was the case with what we refer to as the Korean and Vietnam Wars and as is the case today in Iraq, and I recognize with you tonight as citizens of our world the terrible personal and national tragedies of those and other hostilities and pay homage to the fallen whoever they were. But if I can leave you with one and only one message tonight, it is this: in our country, we are one in our commitment to find and bring home our missing.

I came of age during the time of Vietnam in a small community on my home Island of Hawaii. Robbie Peacock was a handsome and well-liked boy, also from that island, who graduated some years ahead of me, went off to college, enlisted as a pilot, and was sent to Asia. His plane disappeared on a mission and his remains have thus far not been found. His mother has passed away and his father grieves for him still. But, far worse, is that for almost 35 years they have had no finality, no resolution.

I represent Ms. Michie Sasaki in Congress. Her brother, Private First Class Takeshi Sasaki, went missing in Korea on April 25, 1951. At the end of 1953, his status was amended to "Missing in Action and Presumed Dead."

Fifty years later, Ms Sasaki, along with her sisters, traveled to Washington DC to attend the 2004 Annual Korean War/Cold War Government Briefings sponsored by Secretary Jennings and our Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office. Over 500 individuals representing 225 loss cases attended the briefings. There weren't just sister or brothers of those missing in attendance, but nieces and nephews, sons and daughters, and even some grandsons and granddaughters.

Some 89,000 Americans are still unaccounted for on the world's battlefields since World War II, including 6,000 Korea and 2,000 Vietnam. 73 of Hawaii's own are missing in Korea and 12 in Vietnam.

Here's the point: our missing touch each of us, personally, in our homes, our families and our memories. We have not forgotten them, we all seek resolution, and we are united in our efforts.

We know that we are not alone. We know that in the cities and countrysides of your own countries you have countless friends and family members similarly unaccounted for. We know that you and yours also feel still not only your losses but the lack of resolution. We must help each other.

The endeavors of people like Secretary Jennings, General Whitfield, the individuals at the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) and Joint Personnel Accounting Command (JPAC), and the 600 Americans working fulltime worldwide to account for our missing is one of our most important missions. From your country, I salute you all.

And I thank our foreign visitors for your efforts thus far. You can't imagine the effect even today up Americans like Michie Sasaki when they read a headline such as that of a few weeks ago, "U.S. POW/MIA Official Breakthrough in Vietnam," reporting that joint operations will soon resume in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Congratulations to Secretary Jennings and the representatives of Vietnam for your mutual advancement of our mutual effort.

So, as you all complete your vital work this week and return to your homes, please take with you these thoughts. First, for our country, our commitment to accounting for our missing rises above any internal disagreements; we all want to finish this mission, and all branches of our government are united behind and supportive of the efforts of DMPO and others in our focus on doing so. And second, we want to help you do the same, for our interests are mutual and exist notwithstanding the borders within which we live and the nature of our past, present or future relations.

Perhaps in our joint efforts on this purely humanitarian cause lie the roots of true peace in our world. Mahalo, and aloha!