Washington, DC -- Congressman Neil Abercrombie, co-chair of the recently organized POW/MIA Caucus, today told Department of Defense officials, Congressional staffers and POW/MIA family members, “It’s the obvious that we take for granted.” 

The comment referred to the tendency of decision makers to forget about commonly held ideas and the need to repeat them over and over to ensure they are not forgotten.

Abercrombie made the remarks at today’s POW/MIA Caucus kickoff, where he and fellow co-chair Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL) pledged to work for the Caucus’ goal of raising awareness among Members of Congress about issues pertaining to military personnel listed as missing in action or prisoners of war.

Abercrombie added, “America has an obligation to the families of troops taken prisoner or listed as missing in action to provide some kind of closure, even if it takes decades. The US Army’s ‘Soldier’s Creed’—‘I will never leave a fallen comrade’ – is a value that all the services share and that the American people expect Congress to uphold as well.”

The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), located at Hickam Air Force Base, is the primary Department of Defense (DoD) agency responsible for identifying remains and bringing closure to families.  JPAC sends teams to various sites around the globe to excavate remains, and those remains are identified in Honolulu. There are about 88,000 POW/MIA unaccounted for, many dating from WWII.  JPAC identifies about two per week.

Planned JPAC operations include sending a search team to a crash site above the H-3 tunnel on Oahu to collect what are believed to be the remains of Ensign Harry “Bud” Warnke, who crashed there in June 1944.  The DNA of the remains will be compared to those of Warnke’s surviving sister.

JPAC recently excavated the remains of three airmen in Papua New Guinea missing since December 10, 1944.  They were identified as 2nd Lt. Robert H. Cameron, Cpl. George E. Cunningham, and Capt. Vladimir M. Sasko.

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