Our Mission:
My first husband, Capt. Jerry Zimmer, was an F4B Phantom jet pilot, whose aircraft was shot down on August 29, 1969, approximately 20 miles South of Da Nang, Vietnam, after six months in country. Neither Jerry nor his navigator, 1st Lt. Al Graf, was able to eject, before the aircraft crashed into the Que Son Mountains. Initially Jerry and Al were classified as Killed in Action/No Body Recovered (KIA/NBR). Years later, both Marines were listed as MIA, along with other service members whose bodies were never recovered.
Jerry has been gone nearly a half century, and hope for recovering his remains had run out a long time ago. However, in recent years our family became involved with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), now merged with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), and learned that Jerry’s and Al’s remains might, in fact, be recoverable, so we are doing everything possible to support their efforts to make this happen and bring our guys home where they belong.
NOTE: BLOG POSTS ARE NOT UPDATED, SO INFORMATION MAY HAVE CHANGED OVER TIME.
Archive for July, 2010
What Will It Take To Bring Home Our MIAs?
Jerry's son, Craig, and his family celebrate this year's July 4th holiday at the family's beach house in R.I. Jerry would be proud of Craig!
I have no doubt that JPAC has the passion to continue doing the job. And whether you like JPAC or not, this group has developed global relationships, enabling us to partner with countries where our MIAs exist. This is a huge part of the recovery equation! Yes, there are volunteer groups and families with enough means and talent to fund a recovery team, but we’re talking about thousands of MIAs. This effort requires a mature organization with years of experience in conducting multiple investigations, recoveries and identifications at one time. This is what JPAC does, and this is why we need to help the organization work faster and better. Read more
DID AMERICA ABANDON ITS WWII MIAs FOR VIETNAM?
Marines raising the American Flag on Iwo Jima, Feb. 23, 1945.
According to the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)–which now develops and manages policies involving recoveries of missing Americans in wartime locations, the WWII effort involved some 13,000 personnel and cost $163.8 million in wartime dollars. Read more
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