POW-MIA Memorial Certificates - For Family & Friends

US-Russia Archival Conference April 2004- Jim Connell - Presentation

Society of the Honor Guard of the Tomb - Wonderful Facts

The 866 Unknowns - by Irene Mandra

New Section Added - Wall of Honor...
For special people who are no longer with us- Wall of Honor

More Heroes...
Several new Heroes have been added by their loved ones - Heroes

MAPS...
Camp Map, Remains Concentration Map & March Routes - Maps

November 19th, 2004 - U.S., North Korea agree on 10th year of missions to recover American MIAs. U.S. and North Korean officials agreed Thursday to conduct recovery missions for remains of American servicemen missing from the Korean War for a 10th consecutive year. The missions, in which personnel from the United States carry out search operations in the communist state, are a rare example of cooperation between the two nations, which have been at odds over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. The plans for 2005, set in two days of talks in Bangkok led by Jerry D. Jennings, deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW/MIA affairs, call for U.S. excavation teams to work in two areas in North Korea where more than 2,000 soldiers and Marines disappeared.

November 9th, 2004 - Talks with North Korea on 2005 MIA recovery efforts start next week. U.S. and North Korean representatives will meet in Thailand to negotiate next year’s remains recovery missions, officials said. Radio Free Asia, the U.S.-funded radio network, reported that top officials from the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) want to build on the success of 2004’s five joint missions.

November 6th, 2004 -GI Pleads Guilty to Deserting to North Korea. An American GI pleaded guilty at a U.S. court martial in Japan Wednesday of defecting to North Korea four decades ago and "aiding the enemy" by teaching English to North Koreans. Charles Jenkins pleaded not guilty to charges of encouraging disloyalty and soliciting other U.S. military personnel to desert. He will be sentenced at a later date. Jenkins, a U.S. Army sergeant, disappeared during a routine patrol in January 1965 while serving along the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas. Jenkins' fate remained the subject of speculation for 39 years until he emerged from the isolated Stalinist state last July and, after a brief stay in Indonesia, flew to Japan for medical treatment relating to abdominal surgery he underwent earlier in North Korea. There has been much speculation in Japan that Jenkins has sought a plea bargain, perhaps agreeing to plead guilty and cooperate in return for a lighter sentence. That cooperation could include passing on information dealing with the long-rumored possibility that U.S. prisoners of war (POWs) are still alive in North Korea.

November 5th, 2004 - Charles Jenkins pleaded guilty to desertion. Jenkins, a U.S. Army sergeant, disappeared during a routine patrol in January 1965 while serving along the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas. Jenkins' fate remained the subject of speculation for 39 years until he emerged from the isolated Stalinist state last July and, after a brief stay in Indonesia, flew to Japan for medical treatment relating to abdominal surgery he underwent earlier in North Korea. There has been much speculation in Japan that Jenkins has sought a plea bargain, perhaps agreeing to plead guilty and cooperate in return for a lighter sentence.  That cooperation could include passing on information dealing with the long-rumored possibility that U.S. prisoners of war (POWs) are still alive in North Korea. The Defense Department's POW/MIA Affairs Office said several years ago that it had been seeking access to a small group of U.S. defectors, known or suspected to be in North Korea, to find out what they knew about the possibility of POWs.

October 22, 2004 - Teddy Lilly is identified and laid to rest. The 22-year-old soldier was reported killed more than 54 years ago in one of the bloodiest battles of the Korean War. But it wasn't until Thursday that his remains were laid to rest among his family in his home town. "I had given up hope," said Alma Hodes, who married Lilly about five weeks before he was sent to Korea. "But deep in your heart, you always wonder." The remains of 2nd Lt. Edmund "Teddy" Lilly III were recovered in South Korea and buried in Hawaii, but identified only this summer through DNA testing. His funeral was held Thursday at St. John's Episcopal Church, where he once served as an acolyte.

October 16, 2004 - Pyongyang Repatriates Remains. SEOUL - Remains believed to be those of American soldiers missing from the Korean War were honoured yesterday after being turned over from North Korea. UN guards carrying the coffins with the remains of the US soldiers in a ceremony in Seoul. -- AFP  Pyongyang's move came half a century after the 1950 conflict.  At a ceremony at the US 8th Army headquarters in Seoul, attended by hundreds of senior US and South Korean officers, four metal coffins draped with blue United Nations flags were loaded on to black hearses. A military marching band paraded and a gun salute boomed during the ceremony. 'This is a solemn and bittersweet occasion to bring our fallen heroes one step closer to their home and families,' said Major-General Montague Winfield, commander of the Joint PoW Accounting Command, which seeks to recover remains of dead soldiers. It was unclear how many sets of remains were held in the four coffins, officials said. The remains will be flown to a military laboratory in Hawaii for identification. -- AP

October 13, 2004 - A Burnt Prairie native missing in action during the Korean War 54 years ago will be laid to rest Saturday in Fairfield. Department of Defense officials located the remains of Sgt. Carl "Buddy" Sheraden in late 2002, WFIW Radio in Fairfield reported. After positive identification was made, his remains were returned to the family for a re-interment ceremony. Sheraden, who was 29, went missing in action Nov. 27, 1950 in heavy combat near a Korean reservoir. He was a member of the 32nd Infantry Regiment of the Seventh Infantry Division, the station said. Residents of the reservoir area directed a team of searchers from Hickman Air Force Base in Hawaii to several shallow graves more than two years ago, and the remains of several American soldiers were discovered. Forensic tests completed in 2002 confirmed Sheraden's identity.

October 13, 2004 - YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea - Remains unearthed during the fifth and final joint recovery mission this year to North Korea will be repatriated Friday at a Yongsan Garrison ceremony, officials said Tuesday. An indeterminate number of remains believed to be those of U.S. soldiers missing in action from the Korean War will be honored at the ceremony before being flown to a military lab in Hawaii for identification, officials said.

October 9, 2004 - Remains believed to be those of American soldiers missing in action (MIA) from the Korean War (1950-1953) have been recovered by two teams of US specialists, the Pentagon announced on Friday. The remains will be repatriated overland across the demilitarized zone to US control at Yongsan Military Compound in Seoul on Oct. 15, and later will be flown to Hickam Air Force Base,Hawaii, the Pentagon said. The precise number will be determined in follow-on forensic examinations. The repatriation marks the fifth and final remains recovery operation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) this year.

October 4, 2004 - SEOUL, Korea (South) -- A 76-year-old South Korean former soldier has escaped from North Korea after being held for more than half a century as a prisoner of war, the Yonhap news agency reported Sunday. The former soldier, known only by his family name Lee, arrived at a South Korean diplomatic office in China on Friday after escaping from the North, Yonhap said, citing the Families of the Abducted and Detained in North Korea, an association for people abducted by Pyongyang. Lee was from Daegu, 300 kilometers (190 miles) southeast of the South Korean capital Seoul, where he still has a brother, the report said. Lee was captured by North Korean troops in 1951 during the 1950-53 Korean War. He worked down mines for 20 years in the North before moving to work at a cultural center in Sariwon city, capital of North Hwanghae province, it said. After 53 years in the North, Lee started his bid for freedom by leaving the city in August and successfully crossing the border to China early last month, Yonghap said.

US-Russia Archival Conference April 2004 - Overview

U.S. - Russia Archival Conference
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
April 13-15, 2004 Schedule of Topics

US-Russia Archival Conference April 2004- Danz Blasser - Presentation

US-Russia Archival Conference April 2004- Jim Connell - Presentation

US-Russia Archival Conference April 2004- Image Gallery