The government agency with the task of finding American military personnel missing in World War Two, Korea, Vietnam and all Cold War actions estimates that 7,740 American soldiers never came home from Korea. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) puts the number of Americans that went missing in North Korea at more than 5,400. Most may never make the long trip home but some will and that may happen relatively soon for some.
Most of those that never came back were likely killed in action or died, as Prisoners of War but nobody knows for sure. Many were buried where they fell along roads, in ditches and in non descript fields. The earth and time reclaimed the fallen soldiers and civilians. Farmers, builders and those cleaning up after natural disasters like floods have found many of the lost over time but their bodies have been stored and not returned to their loved ones.
For those families in The United States the questions still linger more than 65 years after hostilities came to an end. What ever happened to their brothers, fathers, husbands and friends has remained a mystery and for many this has been an open wound all these years. The military pledge of ‘leave no man behind’ rings hollow to the sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters of those that never returned from the war. Many have spent every available moment and all of their money trying to figure out what happened to their loved ones.
One of the main four points addressed at the Singapore Summit by President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un was a commitment to return to The United States remains of military personnel that perished during the Korean War. Previous administrations had refused working on such concerns and instead focused on not exchanging any official communication with the communist dictators in charge. Last year President Trump followed suit despite what some called a genuine good-will offer from Kim to return as many as 120 remains in the middle of 2017. That has apparently all changed and Trump says it is a gesture of good faith that he will take and will move forward with recovering the remains of those lost.
President Trump is unlike any other President and he decided during the Singapore Summit to ask about the return of remains of American military personnel and according to The President Chairman Kim agreed immediately. This is a positive step forward on many levels and it is disappointing that this success has been almost totally ignored by the echo-chamber media.
Partisan politics have gone too far when they stand in the way of Gold-Star families trying to recover the remains of relatives that died during their service more than 6 decades ago.
It is time to honor fully our commitment to leave no man behind and I for one applaud the President for making this a priority so the more than 7,000 families that don’t know what happened in Korea can hopefully put those questions to rest, once and for all.