This Memorial Day: So Many Americans Heroes Still Missing

This Memorial Day weekend Americans will gather - in our small towns and large cities, in cemeteries and on now-silent battlefields - to pay solemn tribute to those brave Americans who laid down their lives to defend our freedom.

We owe all those who sacrifice in our name an unpayable debt. Over the next few days, we will pause to remember our fallen troops, to mourn their loss, and to pray for their loved ones.

In this regard, I want to draw the attention of Americans to a particular group of patriots: those who have given their last full measure to their country but whose remains have not be recovered. 

The staggering truth is that more than 82,000 Americans remain missing from WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf Wars and other conflicts. Out of the 82,000 missing, 75% of the losses are located in the Indo-Pacific theater, and over 41,000 of the missing are presumed lost at sea (i.e. ship sinkings, aircraft crashes at sea, etc.).

While they may be at rest, in many cases their families are not.  Their wives and husbands and mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and grandchildren are left to wonder the fate of their loved ones. 

One such brother walked into my Congressional office in Washington last year.  LTC John Dinan (USAF, Ret.) of Nutley, Essex County, had lost a brother, LT. David Dinan, an Air Force aviator shot down over Laos in his F-105 Thunderchief in March of 1969.  

LTC Dinan had more information than most family members of Missing-in-Action warfighters. His brother’s crash site in southern Laos was known to the Air Force, but David’s remains were left behind due to hostile fire and the threat of ambush. It was not until 2014 that David’s military identification card was discovered on the jungle floor in Laos.

In the last few years, David’s family became concerned that the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPPA) - the Pentagon agency charged with providing the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and the nation - had halted the search for his remains due to a reported lack of funds.  

Hearing this directly from John and one of David’s squadron mates, both Vietnam veterans like myself, I had inserted into the annual Defense Appropriations funding bill a directive designed to provide families with the fullest possible accounting for missing persons from past conflicts.  For more than two decades, the Department of Defense has conducted joint field activities with the governments of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to recover the remains of more than 1,000 missing Americans, yet today more than 1,600 Americans still remain unaccounted from the Vietnam War alone for various reasons, including the harsh climate.

My Appropriations Committee directed: “the Director of the DPAA to fully resource its field teams in these countries and to continue to investigate crash and burial sites, interview locals, and obtain access to historical wartime records and archives that provide information relevant to the fates of missing Americans...”

LT. David Dinan’s remains were recovered and on August 18, 2017 he was officially listed as “accounted for”.  After more than four decades, he reached his final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery just a few short weeks ago in April.

Since meeting with Dinan’s family, I have made increased support for the DPAA a priority, adding another $10 million to their budget for this year, boosting their funding by nearly one-third. Recognizing the pain and suffering endured by the families of the missing fallen, I will continue to fund and expedite the critical work of the DPAA in order to bring heroes, like LT David Dinan, home.

This weekend, it is with heavy hearts, and a sense of deep gratitude, we mourn these women and men - parents, children, loved ones, comrades-in-arms, friends, and all those known and unknown - who believed so deeply in our country that they were willing to give their lives to protect its promise.

The security that lets us live in peace and prosperity was earned by the blood and the sacrifices of these patriots. This Memorial Day, let us hold close the families of the fallen and pray for the timely return home of their loved ones.