Is 57 Years Long Enough to Keep a Secret?

I note that the names of five new Korean War veterans have been etched into monument (see CBS News report). It seems that at least one of these men, and perhaps all, belonged to a Special Ops team, and their actions (and thus whereabouts) have been kept secret all this time.

While I am pleased that these veterans have been duly recognized, I can't help but wonder about how this might play into the more than eight thousand Americans who are still MIA in Korea. Do we know about the disposition of these individuals but still cannot release this information to the public, to the family, because the nature of the operation is still being held secret? It has been 57 years since that war began, and there are still families that do not know what happened to their loved one. If it is the case, that the government is withholding information about these MIAs, then it is time they stopped and gave an accounting.

Staff Sergeant Elizabeth Feeney, with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in Hawaii, recalls for us that the motto of her command is simply: "until they are home." And yet, so many are still unaccounted for. Maybe the next step is declassification.

Senior Fellow Paul Edwards

When is a POW not a POW?

What do you think about the plight of Dean Gehring who was a prisoner of the Chinese during the Korean War for a period of two days? The problem is this: what makes a POW? His granddaughter wants to get him a POW license plate but she is unable to get one. It appears that (at least in the State of Washington) in order for it to count that you have been a POW, you need to be in captivity for at least 29 days.

That was a new one to me. When I saw this my first reaction was that a prisoner of war is a prisoner of war, and if the man was fortunate enough to get away after two days, why not give him the license if he wants it. But then, I realized that others who had spent months, even years, as a POW might find objections to this. It is an interesting question. How do you determine that 29 days makes you a POW when 15 days doesn’t, and so on?

There is some further information on this story at http://www.kitsapsun.com/ (requires registration), and is worth reading.

What do you think?


Senior Fellow Paul Edwards