Vietnam veteran has not forgotten Spc. Clifford Van Artsdalen

Unaccountable: A Vietnam veteran's 10-year quest to bring his soldier home

STARS AND STRIPES
By WYATT OLSON
Published: December 12, 2019

“I am deeply worried about when the last Vietnam veteran dies — the last man to see a fellow soldier alive, a man like me who gave him an order to go up that trail — who will be left to carry on the mission?”

Spc. Clifford Van Artsdalen, left, plays cards with his fellow platoon members on May 5, 1968, as they await a helicopter shuttle to Hill 352 on Nui Hoac Ridge, South Vietnam. GARY SANNER

Pushing through dense foliage toward the site of the bygone ambush, Michael McDonald-Low felt like he was floating through time.

He had longed for this day, planning thoroughly for the time he would return to this hillside in Vietnam’s Que Son Valley, where many of his infantry company were wounded or killed by a hail of North Vietnamese gunfire on May 11, 1968. The body of one of those soldiers in the platoon he commanded, Spc. Clifford Van Artsdalen, had never been recovered.

That fateful trek was etched like a gravestone inscription in his mind as he retraced his steps during this mission on March 9, 2012, to pinpoint the exact location of Van Artsdalen’s death so that his remains could be found and returned home.

He pressed on to find the split in the trail where he had sent Van Artsdalen and two other soldiers ahead to secure the route.

Soon after finding it, McDonald-Low was joined by the other 11 members of the mission team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the U.S. Defense Department body tasked at that time with finding America’s lost warfighters.

McDonald-Low was confident that this was the exact location where Van Artsdalen was killed, he told Stars and Stripes during a series of interviews about his search. With the location pinpointed — the government for years had been working with an erroneous place and date of his death — the way was finally clear to find and repatriate the soldier’s remains.

Seven years later, nothing has changed. McDonald-Low’s quest to bring him home is no further along than it was then.

And there is little time left.
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Vietnam veteran ended 12 year quest to bring best friend home

A final battle: bringing best friend’s remains home from Vietnam

Los Angeles Times
By ESMERALDA BERMUDEZ
MAY 03, 2019

He took his lawn chair and his lunch and sat beneath the Chinese Elm tree, inches from Raul’s grave. He and his friend, they had a lot of catching up to do.

As kids, Ruben and Raul thought they had life all figured out.

A framed photograph of Raul Guerra, left, as the best man for Ruben Valencia, right, on his wedding day. Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times

They would grow up and live minutes from one another, be best men in each other’s weddings, godfathers to each other’s children. They would sit side by side at Dodger stadium, two old men in a sea of blue.

The friends never imagined that after high school both would be sent to Vietnam — but only one would return.

The loss was so painful that for 40 years Ruben Valencia could hardly bring himself to say Raul Guerra’s name.

“I put everything about him away,” said Ruben, now 74 years old.

But the past can only stay buried for so long. In 2005, Raul’s remains, which had been missing since his plane was shot down in 1967, were recovered and flown to Hawaii. The plan was to hold them there until U.S. officials tracked down his family.

His family, however, was nowhere to be found.

So Ruben set off on a 12-year quest, determined to bring his friend home. The journey would rattle him. It would teach him things about Raul that likely no one knew, and in the end, it would bring the two friends closer than ever.
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Remains of Major Troy Gilbert Returned from Iraq After 10 Years

Remains of Phoenix-area fighter pilot killed in Iraq returned 10 years later
The Republic
Jerod MacDonald-Evoy
October 12, 2016

A U.S. Air Force team carries the remains of Maj. Troy Gilbert at Dover Air Force Base.

(Photo: Senior Airman Aaron J. Jenne/U.S. Air Force)

The remains of an F-16 pilot from Litchfield Park who was killed in Iraq in 2006 have finally been returned, according to the U.S. Air Force.

Maj. Troy Gilbert crashed while leading two other jets in a strafing run against enemy forces that had shot down a helicopter near the town of Taji, Iraq, on Nov. 27, 2006, according to Mike Martin, secretary of Air Force Public Affairs.

Gilbert opted to use a 20-mm gun on his F-16 to help avoid civilian casualties and destroyed one of the trucks that was threatening coalition forces on the ground, according to Martin. On his second approach, he flew even lower and hit the ground, killing him instantly.
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Battle of Tarawa Medal of Honor and Other Marines Remains Found

Discovery of WWII remains brings long-sought peace to Boulder County family
Lost since 1943, remains of Alexander 'Sandy' Bonnyman unearthed on Pacific isle
Daily Camera
By Shay Castle
Staff Writer
POSTED: 06/29/2015

In Highland Memorial Park in Knoxville, Tenn., a large marble headstone stands in honor of 1st Lt. Alexander "Sandy" Bonnyman Jr., a Marine killed in action Nov. 22, 1943, during World War II's Battle of Tarawa.

Etched upon its surface, the only reference to the empty earth beneath it, are the words "buried at sea."

For nearly 70 years, Bonnyman's family — members of which now live in Boulder County — remembered the handsome, adventurous man they had lost with what few artifacts they had left: his Medal of Honor, awarded posthumously for his efforts to hold back a Japanese counterattack; a large portrait, commissioned from an Italian oil painter; and a few black-and-white photographs taken during the assault on Betio.

After his death, the military issued a letter stating that most of the Tarawa war dead were presumed lost at sea near the island.
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Clay Evans Talks About His Grandfather, MOH Recipient Alexander Bonnyman Jr.

FIRST LIEUTENANT
ALEXANDER BONNYMAN, JR., USMCR
(DECEASED)
First Lieutenant Alexander Bonnyman, Jr., of Knoxville, Tennessee, who gallantly gave his life in the battle for Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands, on 22 November 1943, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, for heroism.

The Medal of Honor was presented to his teen-aged daughter by Secretary of the Navy James F. Forrestal during ceremonies at the Navy Department, Washington, D.C., 22 January 1947.

Alexander "Sandy" Bonnyman, Jr., was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on 2 May 1910, but when he was two years old, his family moved to Knoxville. His father was president of the Blue Diamond Coal Company of Knoxville.

As a youth, he attended Mrs. J.A. Thackston's School in Knoxville and graduated from Newman School in Lakewood, New Jersey, before entering Princeton University. He was a "first-stringer" on Princeton's football team until he left school in 1930.

He enlisted in the Army Air Corps as a Flying Cadet on 28 June 1932 and was sent to the Preflight School at Randolph Field, Texas. He was honorably discharged 19 September 1932.

Following his discharge he went to work with his father, whose firm was one of the largest coal mining companies in the United States. In 1938, he acquired his own copper mine in the mountains about 60 miles from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

When he decided to join the Marines in July 1942, he enlisted as a private in Phoenix, Arizona. Subsequently he received his recruit training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California, and in October of that year, Pvt Bonnyman sailed for the South Pacific aboard the USS Matsonia with the 6th Marines, 2d Marine Division.

Combat in the final stages of the Guadalcanal campaign followed for the 6th Marines and he had his first encounter with the Japanese. In February 1943 Cpl Bonnyman received a field promotion to the rank of second lieutenant. He was promoted to first lieutenant on 1 September 1943.
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UPDATE Newly identified remains of World War II Marine killed at Tarawa heading home Associated Press Published September 25, 2015

Sept. 24, 2015: United States Marines salute during a ceremony in Honolulu for the departure of 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman's remains. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy)

Remains of Staff Sgt. Warren Newton Laid to Rest At Arlington

47 years after being declared missing in action, local Vietnam veteran's remains interred in Arlington
Oregon Live
Jim Ryan
June 17, 2015
The remains of a local Vietnam War veteran and his crewmates were interred in Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday, almost 50 years after the men were declared missing in action.

Warren Newton, an 18-year-old Army staff sergeant from Eugene, died in 1968 while serving as a door gunner on a helicopter flight that was shot down by Viet Cong fighters in Vietnam.

The ceremony honoring Newton and his crewmates was the culmination of extensive efforts from a division of the Department of Defense that is committed to accounting for missing veterans and providing information to their families.
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Vietnam veteran from Eugene to be honored, his remains interred in Arlington National Cemetery

Widow of 1st Lt. Billie Harris Didn't Know Husband Was a Hero

Peggy Harris didn't know what happened to her husband. She tried to find out and reached out to Vice Chair of the House Armed Service Committee, Rep. Mac Thornberry. He said her husband was still missing in action but that was not the truth. He was listed as KIA. After years of searching for answers, she discovered her husband was not just buried but remembered by the people of the town.

This story came out two years ago but someone on Facebook posted it today. Thornberry apologized for dropping the ball but is that all that widow deserves from him? Did the DOD ever explain why she was never notified? Didn't anyone know this hero was being honored for the life he sacrificed so many years ago?

For WWII soldier's widow, a 60-year mystery finally solved
Among the Americans who fought to liberate France in the months ahead was 1st Lt. Billie Harris. CBS News went "On the Road," to tell Harris' story -- part mystery, part romance.

Peggy Harris of Vernon, Tex. never got a knock at the door, never got a telegram, never got anything definitive explaining what happened to her husband Billie during World War II. And so, in the absence of answers, she has remained dutiful to this day.

Peggy was very frustrated. She waited. Months turned into years -- "and still no answer." Years turned to decades. So she wrote her congressman.

Wrote repeatedly, in fact, asking for any information about the fate of her husband. The last letter, in 2005, was directed to Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, who also happens to be vice-chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

In his reply, Thornberry said Billie was "still listed as 'missing in action' in the National Archives."

The wife of a World War II soldier waited for more than 68 years for solid proof that her husband is either dead or alive. Then she learned the stunning truth in Normandy, France. Steve Hartman reports.

Part Two

"They don't forget": Normandy still honors American WWII pilot's sacrifice (CBS News) LES VENTES, France - On this anniversary of D-day, we continue the story of one of the American soldiers who fought to liberate France from the Nazis, 1st Lt. Billie Harris. On Tuesday, the "CBS Evening News" reported on how it took Harris' widow six decades of battling bureaucracy to learn his fate.

But it turns out his death was just the beginning of an amazing tale.

It's now been 67 years since the liberation of France, but at Wednesday's D-Day ceremony in Normandy there was one woman who's still in mourning. In fact, until recently, Peggy Harris of Vernon, Texas, didn't even know her husband Billie was buried here. And certainly didn't know the story of what he means to Les Ventes, France.

Billie was a fighter pilot, shot down and killed in July of 1944 over Nazi-occupied northern France. But because of a series of snafus, miscues and miscommunications, that information never got to his wife. As far as she knew, Bill was just missing.

She waited, she said, "All of my life."

Hagel shakes up MIA accounting agencies after negative reports

After unflattering reports, Hagel orders shakeup of MIA accounting agencies
Stars and Stripes
By Jon Harper
Published: February 21, 2014

WASHINGTON — In the wake of numerous reports of misconduct and poor management practices by personnel charged with recovering and identifying the remains of missing servicemembers from past conflicts, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has ordered the Pentagon to come up with a plan to consolidate all Defense Department assets into a single, more accountable entity that will manage all personnel accounting resources, research and operations.

On Thursday, Hagel directed Michael Lumpkin, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, to deliver the plan to him within 30 days, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters.
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Ex-POW Medal of Honor Vietnam Hero Jon Cavaiani Needs Help

Decorated Vietnam War Vet Faces Toughest Battle
NewsMax
By Geoff Metcalf
Monday, 15 Jul 2013

On June 4, 1971, as Jon Cavaiani was serving in the Vietnam War as a special forces officer, his platoon came under intense enemy attack. Cavaiani organized the unit's defense and, when evacuation by helicopter became necessary, he voluntarily stayed on the ground and directed the aircraft.

He successfully evacuated most of the platoon.

For Cavaiani and a small group that remained behind, the war would take a dark turn. As events took a turn for the worse, and after a major enemy attack the next morning, he ordered the remaining men to escape while he stayed and provided suppressive fire to cover their retreat.

When the position was overrun, although seriously wounded, he escaped and evaded the enemy for 11 days before eventually being captured and spening the next two years as a prisoner of war.

He was still listed as Missing in Action when his Medal of Honor was awarded. He was released on April 27, 1973.

Cavaiani served his country well. Now he needs our help. It is time we returned the favor. Cavaiani has been diagnosed with MSD, a chronic blood disease, and over the past four months, he has received many blood transfusions and chemotherapy treatments. He started his treatments at the VA Medial Center in San Francisco and the care they have provided has reportedly been outstanding.
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Oct 6, 2011
Staff Sergeant Jon Cavaiani organized and led an aggressive defense when his force came under fierce attack near Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, on June 4-5, 1971. He evaded capture for 11 days, but was eventually taken as a POW. When he was released in 1973, he heard that he had been recommended for the Medal of Honor. It was awarded to him on December 12, 1974.

Cpt. Walter Burke's dog tags finally given to family

Family presented with Vietnam veteran's dog tags after 4 decades
by KHOU.com staff
khou.com
Posted on November 18, 2012

Burke's dog tags were actually discovered by a search team in 1995, but because of bureaucratic missteps, his family didn't find out until recently.

KATY, Texas - The family of an airman who was killed in action is getting some closure after more than four decades.

On Saturday, the wife and children of Cpt. Walter Burke were presented with his dog tags at a Katy Veterans of Foreign Wars post. Burke's plane was shot down in Vietnam.

Several bodies were recovered from the crash site, but only one was identified leaving family members wondering what really happened to Burke.
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St. Cloud soldier killed in 1950 is finally home

St. Cloud soldier killed in 1950 is finally home
The Associated Press
Published: Saturday, Sep. 8, 2012

ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- The remains of a soldier killed more than 60 years ago during the Korean War have finally been buried in his hometown of St. Cloud.

Francis John "Fuzzy" Reimer had just turned 18 when his unit was surrounded by Chinese soldiers in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in December 1950.
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Vietnam War at 50: A lesson for Afghanistan?

These are reporters that did the research and they added in what happened after most reporters leave off. The Mayaquez Incident

• Vietnam War: Judge and McMahon are generally considered the last to die. Lt. Col. William Nolde, a military professor at Central Michigan University who'd volunteered for Vietnam, was killed by artillery fire on Jan. 27, 1973, 11 hours before the United States signed the Paris Peace Accords. He's considered the last U.S. fatality in the war's combat phase.

But the killing didn't end even after the fall of Saigon. Two weeks later, Cambodian communist forces seized the U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez. The United States launched a military rescue operation on an island where the crew was thought to have been held. When the force withdrew, two Marines — Gary Hall and Danny Marshall — were accidentally left behind, and later killed.

Vietnam War at 50: A lesson for Afghanistan?
By Rick Hampson and Carmen Gentile
USA TODAY
7:32 AM, July 3, 2012

At center, brothers Jeff Walling, right, and Mike Walling, left, sit as their father Air Force Lt. Col. Charles M. Walling of Phoenix, is buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., just outside Washington, Friday, June 15, 2012. Walling's F-4 Phantom jet crashed during a mission in Vietnam in 1966 but his remains were not recovered until 2010. / AP Photo

By April 29, 1975, America's war in Vietnam had been over for two years. But as he stood post at the gate of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, a city encircled by 16 communist divisions, Sgt. Bill Newell got the news: Two fellow Marine security guards had been killed at the airport.

Charlie McMahon and Darwin Judge were new in country; McMahon had arrived 11 days earlier. They'd never fired their weapons in combat. They'd been assigned to the airport in part because it was safer and would be evacuated sooner.

Instead, because of an enemy rocket, they'd be the last Americans to die in the Vietnam War.

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Major Troy Gilbert's body will be searched for again

Air Force Asks for New Search of F-16 Pilot Troy Gilbert’s Remains in Iraq
By Luis Martinez
The Air Force has agreed to a family’s plea that the Pentagon renew the search for the body of Major Troy Gilbert, whose F-16 fighter jet crashed in Iraq in 2006 as he came to the rescue of troops pinned down by enemy fire. His full remains were never recovered.

Gilbert’s remains were shown on an insurgent video taken at the crash site, but when American troops arrived at the wreckage they did not find his body.

A small amount of tissue found on the plane’s canopy was positively identified through DNA testing as belonging to Gilbert and was enough to classify him as “killed in action.”

It was that small set of remains that was interred at Arlington National Cemetery and in the years since Gilbert’s family has held out hope that the search would continue for the rest of his remains.

When the last of the American troops left Iraq last December, the family was shocked to learn that no searches were being conducted for the rest of Gilbert’s remains because he is listed as killed in action, “body accounted for.”
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Body of second sailor recovered in Afghanistan

Body of 2nd sailor recovered in Afghanistan

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jul 29, 2010 9:08:59 EDT

KABUL, Afghanistan — A second Navy sailor who went missing in a dangerous part of eastern Afghanistan was found dead and his body recovered, a senior U.S. military official and Afghan officials said Thursday.

The family of Culinary Specialist 3rd Class Jarod Newlove, a 25-year-old from the Seattle area, had been notified of his death, the U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to disclose the information.

Newlove and Hull Maintenance Technician 2nd Class Justin McNeley went missing Friday in Logar province. NATO recovered the body of McNeley — a 30-year-old father of two from Wheatridge, Colo. — in the area Sunday.
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Body of second sailor found/

Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher remains found after 18 years

Remains found of officer shot down in '91 Gulf War
The remains of the first American shot down in the 1991 Persian Gulf War have been identified, according to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. The announcement ends more than 18 years of speculation about whether U.S. Navy Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher may have survived the crash and been held captive, or died in captivity in the ensuing years. full story

Capt. Lorenza Conner, MIA Vietnam remains identified

Remains of Vietnam veteran to be returned
Wednesday, October 08, 2008

The remains of a Cartersville man killed during the Vietnam War have been identified and will be returned to his hometown for burial.

The funeral for Capt. Lorenza Conner of the U.S. Air Force will be held Oct. 25 in Cartersville.
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Mission to inform families continues at Randolph's Missing Persons Branch


by Thomas Warner
Staff Writer

9/12/2008 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Rains fell, finally, over this parched region on a recent morning as Master Sgt. Susan Williams continued her pursuit, inside her Air Force Personnel Center office, of information to pass on to families of those unaccounted for from past U.S. military engagements.

Sergeant Williams is at least able to share new findings more often than rain falls here, but as time passes, families mull the prospect their loved ones could be gone forever.

"We don't ever want families to forget that we will never stop searching until everyone is accounted for ... everyone is home," Sergeant Williams said.

The Missing Persons Branch at Randolph has a unique raison d'etre or reason for being; serving as a liaison to family members of Air Force members who remain unaccounted for.

While more than 88,000 servicemembers from all branches remain unaccounted for since World War II, there have been more than 1,400 people located, discovered and brought home by government-sponsored agencies.

In recent decades, DNA research advancements have been tied directly to positive identifications of remains discovered at war-time excavation sites. Maternal relatives of service members can offer DNA samples that are used, with new-age mitochondrial analyses, in conjunction with other evidence, to determine if the remains are indeed those of lost U.S. servicemembers.

The most recent Air Force recovery of a person lost during wartime occurred less than a month ago. Capt. Lorenza Conner had been unaccounted for since 1967 when, as a 24-year-old pilot, his F-4 Phantom jet was shot down over North Vietnam. Captain Conner's remains have now been positively identified and are in the process of being returned to his family in Georgia.
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http://www.randolph.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123114242

Reporter stalks fallen soldier Pfc. Alex Jimenez's family

Reporter Stalks Family of Slain Soldier
Debbie Hamilton at Right Truth on Aug 10 2008 at 8:56 am Filed under: Feature Article
From Tom Duggan at The Valley Patriot:
Slain soldier, Army Pfc. Alex Jimenez was captured by Al Qaeda and had been missing for 15 months before his remains were finally found in Iraq. “As hard as it was for the Jimenez family,” said Jim Wareing spokesman for the Jimenez and Duran Family “someone tipped off the Eagle Tribune that Alex had been found before the family was notified.”

“And when we arrived to deliver the devastating news to Andy (Alex’s father who lives in Lawrence), the Tribune was already in the house, snapping pictures as the family was told, breaking down in tears. It was total exploitation of this family who had been through so much. We were horrified by the picture they ran on the front page the next day. It was such an invasion of privacy,” he said in a somber tone.
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What part of respect the wishes of the family are not understood by this reporter? If they want to talk, then let them talk. If they want pictures taken, then take them. But if they don't, then respect that and walk away.

A Saddened Corona Receives Its Soldier, Home From Iraq

The funeral procession for Sgt. Alex R. Jimenez made its way from Hinton Park the few blocks to the funeral home, and church.

A Saddened Corona Receives Its Soldier, Home From Iraq

By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ
Published: August 1, 2008
For 14 months, they waited for him. They hung the midnight-black missing-in-action banner at his home in Queens, offsetting its grimness with the bright hues of the Dominican and American flags. They dreaded another knock at the door from soldiers in uniform, but as the months dragged on, some came to crave closure most of all.

On Thursday, he came back. The police cars with flashing lights guided Sgt. Alex R. Jimenez’s coffin past the laundry, the travel agency and the minimart to 104-35 37th Drive in Corona. The procession paused in front of the bouquet of yellow and white flowers.

“You’re home, you’re home,” his friends and relatives cried as they surrounded the car holding his coffin, holding each other up for support.
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Bodies of 2 Missing U.S. Soldiers Found

Bodies of 2 Missing U.S. Soldiers Found

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 11, 2008
Filed at 4:27 a.m. ET


DETROIT (AP) -- The bodies of two U.S. soldiers missing in Iraq for more than a year have been found, their families said Thursday night. The military would not immediately confirm the report.

The father of Army Sgt. Alex Jimenez, of Lawrence, Mass., said the remains of his son and another soldier, Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, of Waterford, Mich., had been identified in Iraq.

Jimenez, 25, and Fouty, 19, were kidnapped along with a third member of the 2nd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division during an ambush in May 2007 in the volatile area south of Baghdad known as the ''triangle of death.'' The body of the third seized soldier, Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr. of Torrance, Calif., was found in the Euphrates River a year later.

Jimenez's father, Ramon ''Andy'' Jimenez, said uniformed military officials came to his home in Lawrence on Thursday to tell him that his son's body and some of his son's personal effects had been discovered. Fouty's stepfather, Gordon Dibler, said military officials came to his Oxford home to break the news.

The Pentagon generally waits 24 hours after notifying the next of kin before making a release public.

Andy Jimenez told The Associated Press through a translator that the news ''shattered all hope'' the family had to ''see Alex walk home on his own.''

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Body of missing Lawrence soldier discovered in Iraq

Body of missing Lawrence soldier discovered in Iraq
By Jeannie Nuss & Milton J. Valencia
Globe Correspondent And Globe Staff / July 10, 2008
The body of Alex R. Jimenez, a Lawrence-based soldier who was kidnapped more than a year ago, has been found in Iraq in a tragic ending to a family's wrenching hope for his return.

Jimenez's father, Ramon "Andy'' Jimenez, was notified by Army servicemen who came to his home yesterday that his son's body was found two days ago by Iraqi authorities, who contacted their American counterparts.

The elder Ramirez, who had held out hope that he would one day see his son's return, seemed to come to terms with the news.

"It comforts you when you accept something, and Alex did what he wanted to do,'' said Andy Jimenez, who was joined yesterday by friends and family, and a community of supporters who had rallied around him since Alex first went missing on May 12, 2007.

Sergeant Alex Jimenez, an Army specialist, was 25 when he and other members of the Second Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division were ambushed while on patrol on a deserted highway south of Baghdad. Several members of his unit were killed.

Jimenez and two other soldiers were kidnapped. The body of Private First Class Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif. was discovered in a river just 11 days later. Private Byron W. Fouty, 19.of Waterford, Mich., is still missing. There was no information on Fouty yesterday.

Two Pentagon officials with knowledge of the case said that the military plans to announce the discovery of Jimenez's body today, in accordance with Pentagon policy that no announcement will be made until 24 hours after a family is notified.
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US faces problems looking for remains of MIA in South Korea

Development poses hurdle in search for U.S. remains
By Ashley Rowland, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, May 16, 2008



SEOUL — In Southeast Asia, anthropologists face Indiana Jones-like hurdles to find the remains of U.S. troops lost in battle decades ago — jungles, poisonous snakes and acidic soil that can erode bones before they’re ever found.

In South Korea, obstacles are more modern but just as daunting — high-rise apartments that cover land where soldiers could be buried.

"One of the main, significant difficulties you see every time you look outside: This place is incredibly developed," said Charles Ray, deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office. "I have difficulty recognizing places where I spent a lot of time. Places that were once rice paddies are massive condominiums."

Ray and other top officials with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command spoke with Stars and Stripes on Wednesday during a visit to South Korea. During their weeklong trip, they met with South Korean officials to discuss South Korea’s search for its missing, which often overlaps with the U.S. search for its missing.

JPAC is a U.S. military organization based in Hawaii that works to recover the remains of 88,000 troops unaccounted for since World War II. About 8,100 U.S. troops still are missing on the Korean peninsula, most in North Korea.
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http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54826