(1888PressRelease)
March 07, 2008 - Washington, DC: There are still 79,000 Americans missing from World War II. Of these, approximately 430 Americans are still missing from the China-Burma-India Theatre. Active searches in India concluded with the closure of the Barrackpore and Kalaikunda Cemeteries as the remains were concentrated to the Punchbowl on Oahu, HI and the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines. This repatriation of remains was concluded in January 1948. The last active searches in the India-Burma Zone were conducted in the summer of 1949. In August 1974 an Indian Army Patrol was dispatched to a US aircraft crash site reported by a hunter in Northeast India. These remains were transferred to a CILHI (Central Identification Lab - Hawaii) team in August 1977. It was not until recent lobbying by private citizens from the families of the US Army Air Force B-24 "Hot as Hell" crew that this issue was brought to the attention of the Government.
A meeting was held in Washington DC on January 13 and January 14, 2008 between Indian Defense Secretary Vijay Singh and US Under Secretary of Defense (Policy) Ambassador Eric Edelman. Multiple confirmed crash sites in northeastern India were discussed and a landmark agreement was reached allowing joint Indo-American remains recovery operations at those crash sites, eventually to lead to long-awaited closure for the families of the missing crewmen.
"We are treating this as a humanitarian gesture and we have no objections to the US teams coming into the Northeast", Indian Defense Ministry officials told the publication India Today.
According to India Today, "The missions were cleared by the Ministry of Home Affairs (India) which overruled reservations expressed by Intelligence bureau (India). " There are still some details to be worked out between the US and India. "A team of US specialists led by Rear Admiral Donna L. Crisp, Commander, JPAC (Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command) is to meet with Indian Defense Ministry Officials in March to discuss specific plans for further investigation and recovery operations. India IAF helicopters out of Assam have already begun preliminary work in identifying crash sites and helipads for the operations which are slated to begin between April and May of this year."
For more on this story please see the following published articles:
Sandeep Unnithan, "Ghosts of War", India Today, February 1, 2008
(http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/ghosts-of-war-12.html)
Nina Bernstein, "Still Trying to Bring Their Fallen Heroes Home", New York Times, February 3, 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/nyregion/03remains.html)
Contact information:
Lisa Phillips
President, World War II Families for Return of the Missing
PO Box 804
Windham, ME 04062
lphillips5 ( @ ) fairpoint dot net
(207) 939-2051
