India-US join hands to recover remains of fallen heroes
Wednesday 12 March 2008 at 09:13
by NC Sentinel
Merinews - New Delhi, IndiaIndia-US join hands to recover remains of fallen heroes
Gary Zaetz, 12 March 2008, Wednesday
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 in the Punchbowl at 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. The 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 limelight of the government.
A meeting took place in Washington DC on January 13 and January 14, 2008, between Indian defence secretary Vijay Singh and US under secretary of defence (Policy) ambassador Eric Edelman. “We are treating this as a humanitarian gesture and hold no objections to the US teams coming into the Northeast.” Indian defence 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 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 up with Indian defence ministry officials in March to discuss further plans for carrying out 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 is slated to begin between April and May of this year.
Confirmed crash sites in Northeastern India were discussed and a landmark agreement was reached allowing a joint venture between Indo-American recovery operations at those crash sites, eventually to lead long-awaited closure for the families of the missing crewmen.
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.net
(207) 939-2051
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