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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.
Posts Tagged ‘JPAC’
REMEMBERING OUR FALLEN HEROES ON MEMORIAL DAY
On August 20, 2009, my first husband, Capt. Jerry Zimmer, USMC, was honored with a full military memorial service, performed by the Marine Corps at Arlington National Cemetery. Jerry’s son, Craig, is shown here accepting the American Flag, as his father’s primary next of kin. Forty years after his death, Jerry received a headstone in a special section of Arlington for missing-in-action service members and others with similar circumstances.
Many Americans will celebrate Memorial Day on Monday, May 26, 2014, in honor of the brave men and women who lost their lives while serving our country with the Armed Forces. This day offers an opportunity to remember them in a special way, as is often the case among families with wartime losses and active duty military and veterans who lost buddies while serving our nation.
A lot of Americans fly the American flag, attend a Memorial Day ceremony or visit a loved one’s gravesite, giving meaning to a phrase that says it all – you are not forgotten. While in Washington, D.C. in late April, I visited Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place for so many of our young battlefield heroes. I am always left with a sense of pride and sorrow, and this visit was no exception.
Death Too Soon
My first visit to Arlington was during the Vietnam War, when Capt. Charlie Pigott, USMC, died in a horrific F-4, midair collision over Da Nang in May 1969. Most of the people who attended his funeral were wives or girlfriends of pilots, still in country and unable to come home for the service. I remember feeling so small and insignificant, surrounded by a seemingly endless mass of white headstones, yet thinking that it wouldn’t happen to Jerry. We all loved Charlie and were heartbroken about his death and the other casualties involved in the collision. Three months later Jerry was gone, too. Unlike Charlie, his remains did not come home, so Jerry did not have a funeral in Arlington, where I thought at the time all war casualties were buried, if not in their hometown.
As a young military wife whose experience with death was very limited, I was unprepared at first for a funeral without a body, but reality kicked in when I learned that Jerry was unable to eject from his F-4 — a supersonic jet. I knew how much Jerry loved the farming community of Maine, NY, where he was raised and adored by the town’s people. I arranged to have a service at the family farm, knowing that it would mean a lot to his parents. That day was surreal for me then and still remains a blur in many ways.
Rewriting History
Fast forward 40 years. Our family learned that Arlington has a special memorial section for service members missing in action; remains not recovered or identified; remains buried at sea; remains donated to science; or remains cremated with ashes scattered but no portion interred, as described on Arlington’s website.
On August 20, 2009, Jerry was honored at Arlington with a full Marine Corps memorial service. A headstone was placed adjacent to one for 1st Lt Al Graf, the navigator who also perished when their aircraft went down. Jerry’s memorial event was extraordinarily touching with family members present, including his son, Craig, who accepted the American Flag, with his wife and children nearby, along with many of his dad’s friends and military buddies who came from great distances to pay their respects.
If Jerry’s remains are found, they will be interred in the burial section of Arlington. For more information about memorial services at Arlington, families should contact the casualty officer for their loved one’s branch of service.
A Beautiful Sight
Marking its 150th anniversary this year, Arlington will be dressed for Monday’s event, as is the case every Memorial Day. The Old Guard recently completed their annual tribute to America’s fallen military heroes with its Flags-in ceremony, setting a small American flag at each of the 220,000 headstones in the cemetery. This tradition dates back to 1948, and belongs to the Army’s 3rd United States Infantry Regiment – a very unique unit that has my deepest respect for their patriotism and continued efforts to remember our nation’s heroes. Thank you for what you do.
A special thanks this Memorial Day to all the men and women of DPMO and JPAC who continue to search for the remains of loved ones still unaccounted for from past wars. Your efforts make it possible for many families to believe that one day their loved ones might be moved from the battlefields of long ago to the sacred grounds of Arlington or another special place of honor.
HAGEL’S PLAN MAY MEAN MORE MIA EXHUMATIONS
Manila American Cemetery and Memorial
As family members with loved ones still unaccounted-for from past wars prepare for changes in how the US Government will speed up recoveries, there is a likelihood that more emphasis will be placed on exhumations of service members’ remains, yet to be identified, interred in America’s 24 burial grounds on foreign soil and presumably in Hawaii. Most are located in Europe and have been a major attraction by American visitors for decades.
The U.S. military’s recent pivot to Asia Pacific generated an urgency for recoveries/identifications of MIAs in that region. In the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, many of our WWII losses were killed in New Guinea or the Battle of the Philippines and the Allied recapture of the islands, according to the American Battle Monuments Commission — the organization that maintains our military cemeteries. There are no American-maintained cemeteries in Korea or Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
THE BASICS
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel made it official on March 31st during a press conference, explaining that the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) are to be consolidated into one agency, of which has yet to be named. The newly formed agency will report to a civilian, appointed by the President.
At this point, it appears that Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michael Lumpkin has assumed temporary responsibility. Lumpkin was assigned the task of presenting a plan of how to reorganize the accounting community and given 30 days to complete the assignment. Whoever is appointed to lead the new agency will need nerves of steel. No date was given as to when the agency will be stood up, but it is expected to be headquartered at the Pentagon with changeover coming in weeks, according to one report.
CHANGE IN LAB IDENTIFICATIONS
JPACs Central Identification Laboratory (CIL) will no longer be the lead organization for MIA identifications. The Armed Forces Medical Examiner will work for the new agency and be the single identification authority and oversee operations at the CIL in Hawaii, and satellite labs in Omaha, NE, and Dayton, Ohio. It appears that most remains are expected to be identified through DNA. The Pentagon should have the resources to ensure that all DNA is captured efficiently and quickly. I know how hard DPMO and JPAC worked at every annual meeting and regional meeting to spread the word, but their resources were limited.
Although nothing was mentioned about the role of anthropologists, who have traditionally worked in the field and the lab, I am hopeful that they will continue to assist in the process. Most people do not know that the CIL has earned some of the highest ratings possible in the field of forensic science. It is in the same league as the FBI lab, and in fact has consulted over time with Bureau specialists. The CILs certifications allow their scientists to assist with major disasters throughout the world. The lab, under Dr. Tom Holland, has reportedly never produced a mistaken identification in 20 years. Holland is respected on a global level, as are those who work for him at the top management levels. It was not clear if Holland will be offered a role with the new agency.
JOIN THE SEARCH?
Few details or hardcore questions were asked of Hagel or Lumpkin by the press corps assigned to the Pentagon, namely as to how the military will fit into the newly organized agency, since JPAC is a military command. Because the military is critical for the overall success of the accounting mission, I actually anticipate that military involvement could increase, but with the drawdown, who knows! Even though Lumpkin’s plan calls for expanding opportunities for private search groups to get involved and a host of other ways of doing more with less, I am hoping that the government is sufficiently concerned about liability — operations are dangerous and sometimes hazardous because of UXOs. Plus, there can be political ramifications of sending private groups, as opposed to official groups, to global locations. However, JPAC has been involved with a number of outside groups, and those will likely be given a larger role. Each country has a little different type of welcome mat for teams conducting field operations. My guess is that the new agency will be doing a lot of internal and external policy revisions.
WORKABLE DATABASE
The agency will create a centralized database and case management system that will be comprised of all missing service members’ information. In my opinion, this will be the biggest, most complex part of the reorganization and should reveal a lot about the difficulties that predecessors have had in working many of the cases, especially ones from WWII.
Unless officials understand that historic MIA case files from WWII need to be updated and prioritized before passing them along to operational teams, they will be kicking the can down the road. A good, functioning database should be able to flag those cases that are ready to go. A word of caution — I suggest that the government be very careful not to get rid of experienced forensic analysts and forensic investigators familiar with MIA recoveries — these people can work with whomever is creating a new MIA solutions-oriented program and, hopefully, avoid the garbage in, garbage out situation. One of the biggest advantages that could come out of a good system is the grouping of well-prepared cases to allow multiple field operations in one geographic area. Good logistics will save money as this program becomes bigger in the near future. JPAC has worked effectively in Southeast Asia — mainly in Vietnam — using this type of model.
MAKING THE NUMBERS
It appears that making 200 identifications annually by 2015, as mandated in the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, is still a go. My assumption is that there are plans for exhumations to ensure that the goal is met. However, I would caution about relying too much on exhumations, because there are different schools of thought about the sanctity of these graves. But perhaps even more concerning would be the potential for exhuming remains for which there is no
DNA match. I know that families and the general public will be eager to learn the results of these recoveries. Most of us are more familiar with hand-overs or field operations. It has been my understanding that many interments consist of co-mingled remains, which can be challenging to sort out, but perhaps science has now broken through most of the barriers.
TRANSPARENCY FOR FAMILIES
Hagel also noted that the new agency would provide a single point of contact for all families. The theory is to offer easy access for learning about search and identification activities and is part of the government’s promise of transparency. With thousands of families wanting information but not being computer literate and living in different time zones, I’m not sure how this will work but we’ll soon find out.
For those of us with loved ones still unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War, there were apparently no sidebar conversations with Lumpkin or Hagel — at least that surfaced immediately — about the future of the detachments in Southeast Asia. But most reporters that cover the Pentagon would not necessarily be aware of the intricacies of recovering our loved ones from the field. However, you can bet that every Vietnam War family who has been following their loved one’s case is eager to know that the work in Southeast Asia will continue and perhaps increase. Time is running out for recovering our MIAs in that part of the world, and I hope that Lumpkin will visit Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia ASAP to see for himself. How large a role our government will play in future Vietnam War recoveries, versus the Vietnamese government, is likely to be a big issue down the road.
ADVICE FOR LUMPKIN
Obviously, the reorganization is in the early stages, and no one at this time is making any promises of when the agency expects to be fully operational. The DoD will officially own this program and be responsible for its achievements and failings and, as most of us know, there are no sacred cows in this arena. My advice to Lumpkin is that he embrace some of the long-time internal experts in DPMO and JPAC, and forget all the BS that has literally taken over the MIA program with journalists looking for the big scoop and people wanting to earn their bones — no pun intended, telling you they know the latest and greatest about historical recoveries. It is the families that need to be convinced that the new agency is not overselling and under delivering, but prepared to keep its promise. We want this new effort to work.
What do I think of the plan? Guardedly optimistic, but as Ann Mills Griffiths was quoted in an article, “the proof is in the pudding.”
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