IT'S A small WORLD - My time with the POW/MIA office

swiftvets.com ^ | 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

NavyChief

Joining this website in August and throwing my two cents worth into the discussion surrounding the SBVT controversy, I had no idea what a small world this would be.

I worked on the US/Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIA with various Senators, Congressmen, STATE and DOD officials for 4 years. This is where my first encounter with Senator Kerry came from. His office was aloof in our work on this important issue. They refused to participate in our findings and hard work to account for American POW/MIAS from WWII, Korea, Cold War, and Vietnam -- even though Senator Kerry was appointed the Co-Chairman of the Vietnam War Working Group by President Bush Sr in 1992.

As you can see, my two worlds came together while working with the SBVT and the POW/MIA issue. And now I rejoice in the union of the SBVT and the POWs for Truth. This issue is tying my fate to this cause even more every day.

Strangely, one of the very incidents (13 Mar 69) of which we've been working so deligently on in the past two months, has even more significance than I thought. You see, the USS WASHTENAW COUNTY (LST-1166) was one of the main focus for our attention in nailing down the timeline of what happened that day. Yet, miles away another little known ship, USS SPHINX (ARL-24) was providing its support to the war effort. Many years later, in 1988, the USS SPHINX became my home for a year in Central America. She was very special to me as my first tour on a Navy Ship. Again, the irony of the SPHINX and WASHTENAW COUNTY would cross again, but only known to myself. Our homeport was Rodman Naval Base, Panama City, Panama. Unbeknowst to me at the time, the large LST that sat 100 yards away from our pier was the WASHTENAW COUNTY. She had been sold to a Panamanian company and was sitting right there all along. Of course, she had no markings of the USS at the time. Nor, did she have her previous glorious coloring of "Haze Grey".

I had even reported at one time that the ship was obviously collecting intelligence on the incoming traffic into the Panama Canal. My Commanding Officer was a little surprised by this as we all believed at the time that she was being run by the Panamanians, at a time previous to our invasion of that country. Now I find out that she was being used by our own CIA, which I've worked with in the past. It's a small world.

Very few people know of which I'm about to divulge regarding my time with the POW/MIA office. I have been waiting to tell someone about this, since I've been working with the actions in Vietnam for the past several months.

In 1995, shortly after I returned from a tour at the American Embassy in Moscow, Russia, our office received information that the Polish government had compiled a list of some 12,500 names of Americans MIA from WWII, Korea, Cold War and Vietnam. You should remember that Poland was a Soviet Union satellite country for many years. They were quick to capitalize on their freedom from the Soviet Union and it's downfall in late 1991. The Polish government had been in charge of the IRCR mission, which saw many of our POWs in captivity in Vietnam and had access to them when our own government did not. They claimed to know the disposition of these 12,500 American servicemen and were willing to give us the information if done secretly. During this timeframe, President Clinton wanted Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary to join the NATO alliance to bolster his legacy. In an effort to slow down their joining NATO and use the POW/MIA issue to our advantage and get this list, Senator Robert Smith (NH-R) managed to place a stipulation in the Treaty allowing these countries to join NATO. Senator Smith had been doing most of the work as another Co-Chairman of the Vietnam War Working Group, while Senator Kerry's absense was felt keenly during those years of the Democratic run Executive Branch. Our office found no friends in the Clinton administration to help us in our struggle to account fully for our POW/MIAs and Kerry's influence would have been essential to secure that assistance. It never came. The stipulation placed in the Treaty was intended to allow our office to prepare for a trip to Poland and retrieve this list. We finally came to an agreement with the Polish officials and made our travel arrangements to retrieve the list. Alas, President Clinton took it upon himself to declare that all three countries had been forthcoming in a full accounting of any and all information regarding American POW/MIAs from WWII to the present. Our office was crushed! We had worked so hard and carefully to get that list and with a deft swoop of the pen -- President Clinton had defeated all our efforts.

An immediate protest went up from our office to the President (after all, we were the Presidential Commission tasked with this effort). President Clinton had not consulted with us before his declaration, nor did any of his staff. Everyone within the STATE Department and DOD were baffled when confronted with the knowledge, that our office had not given the President the green light. Once, the President had been confronted by this information, he replied that he had been told that a full accounting was achieved. Not a single person in the government (and certainly not our office), was willing to confess to this outrageous defeat. All eyes had turned to the one Commissioner who had the authority to speak on behalf of POW/MIA issues. The one who was a senior Senator amongst the Democratic Party and had access to the President's ear. The one who never showed up to work on this issue. The one who had already closed the case on the POW/MIA issue from the Vietnam War.

To really know the truth why President Clinton had done this to the families and friends of 12,500 American servicemen, will probably never come to light. We shall never know for sure if our candidate to whom President Clinton stated in his DNC speech said, "Send Me" for the POW issue, was responsible for the statement that a full accounting had been achieved. We shall never know this for sure and it can only be called speculation by those on the outside. But a few of us who worked this issue to the core of our beings -- we will know. We will bear the knowledge that our political system is ugly. We will know when we look at the families of those who have not found closure.

I will know that this is indeed a small world.

- Chief _________

________ Working with Senator Kerry four years in the POW/MIA Office left me thinking

-- when did the man ever do any work?

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

NavyChief from SwiftVets.com Forum
gave me his permission to post this here.

Thanks MistyCA for the heads up!

[mylife]

Thanks for the great testimony

[bannie]

Kennedys create money machines for themselves by starting some charity or another and stealing from them...er, I mean...getting paid for running the charity.

[BykrBayb]

Thank you. Bookmarked.

[JustAmy]

Thanks for posting this and thank you for the ping.

[Cold Heat]

Just more reasons to hate the traitor.

It keeps on coming and it sickens me to think he could even be allowed to run for office, much less get elected.

Kerry hates the military.

I think it is because he sees our military might as a threat to world peace.

I think it is because he believe a one world government to be the respectable outcome of a empowered U.N. over U.S affairs.

I think it is because he was given a lesser than honorable discharge and has been covering this up ever since.

This man may be the most dangerous SOB since Kennedy.

[laurenmarlowe]

Thank you Tonk. You and every other Veteran need our help in getting these facts, details, and testimonies out to our friends and contacts. With less that 30 days left until the election, we cannot slack off. The big fight is ahead, and we all need to do what we can to help. John Kerry cannot be elected POTUS. He is a danger to America. He is a danger to our safety. He is a danger to our American principles.

[Eaker]

More dirt on a man that never should have been a Senator and cannot be elected President!!!

[moonpie57]

I have to think about Fred McMurray, the man on my POW bracelet...I wonder how he would feel about John Kerry being president. I know the thought makes me ill.

Read Fred's story at: http://moonpie.home.att.net/fred.htm . He was never accounted for. Searches were made for him or his body, to no avail. For all any of us know he could STILL be alive. It's a known fact that POW's of past wars were taken to Russia and probably other places. In fact I read awhile back about a man from WWII, I believe, that was taken to Russia and made to work in factories there. He was never allowed to leave and eventually married and had a family. Years later he was allowed to return to his country of origin, and saw his original family. We have no idea what could have happened to our POW's. And to have this man that sold out our soldiers and our POW's as president is just unthinkable.

[christie]

.
I saw this earlier on another site and was once again angered by what Kerry did. This is so typical. Kerry also:

Blocked the vote on the Vietnam Human Rights Act in the Senate in 2001, which tied U.S. aid to Vietnam's human rights performance, and had passed by a 410-1 margin in the House of Representatives. Kerry, chairman of the Senate's East Asian and Pacific Affairs subcommittee, said in a statement at the time that he and fellow Vietnam War veteran Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) "are concerned that denying aid to Vietnam would actually slow human rights improvements." Many Vietnamese living abroad, along with human rights campaigners, say conditions in Vietnam have deteriorated in the three years since Kerry blocked the legislation.

Persuaded the MIA/POW Senate committee to vote unanimously that no POWs existed in Vietnam in order to open up trade with Vietnam (his cousin C. Stewart Forbes, CEO of Colliers Intl, received a contract for a huge commercial deal worth at least $905 million to develop a deep-sea commercial port at Vung Tau). For more on the POW/MIA issue, here is a great article: When John Kerry's Courage Went M.I.A. - Senator covered up evidence of P.O.W.'s left behind

For more, check out the John F. Kerry Timeline. Email it to your friends, post on your blogs.
.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Here you go TROLLS!

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Hanoi Jane at least was a Viet Cong!
Just like me!

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We hate US Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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We lie about them in 2004 the same as we did in the 60's and 70's!

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John F. Kerry
Timeline of a traitor.
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Free online version of
Kerry's "The New Soldier"
You can read it online right now.

[BIGLOOK]

Kerry has a penchant for leaving vets behind: Rassman was lucky but then, he served a purpose (in Kerry's ambitions). Thanks Tonk!

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!