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IT'S A small WORLD - My time with the POW/MIA office
swiftvets.com ^ | 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub

Posted on 10/03/2004 7:17:42 PM PDT by 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?


TOPICS: Government; Military/Veterans; Politics
KEYWORDS: pow; swiftboat; swiftboatvets
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To: BykrBayb; 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub

I missed a troll, did I?


101 posted on 10/03/2004 10:33:45 PM PDT by Brad’s Gramma ($1 a month/each Freeper/Tick off the libs/End the Freepathons/$1 a month/each Freeper/Tick off the l)
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To: Brad's Gramma

Yes, he's been wiped from our memory already.


102 posted on 10/03/2004 10:41:22 PM PDT by BykrBayb (5 minutes of prayer for Terri, every day at 11 am EDT, until she's safe. http://www.terrisfight.org)
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To: BykrBayb

Good. From what I read.....


103 posted on 10/03/2004 10:42:25 PM PDT by Brad’s Gramma ($1 a month/each Freeper/Tick off the libs/End the Freepathons/$1 a month/each Freeper/Tick off the l)
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To: 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub; MistyCA

WOW!!

Bookmarked for mass e-mailing!

Thanks for the pings!!!!!


104 posted on 10/03/2004 10:49:11 PM PDT by radu (May God watch over our troops and keep them safe)
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To: Brad's Gramma

It was sent back under its bridge.


105 posted on 10/03/2004 10:56:54 PM PDT by Shellback Chuck (Olongapo hookers are more truthful than Kerry)
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To: MistyCA

Grrrr...


106 posted on 10/03/2004 11:00:22 PM PDT by struwwelpeter
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To: 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub; MistyCA; Mo1
You are too kind about Kerry I really don't know why folks don't Identify this man for what he is He is a International Communist!

The IC has infiltrated the DNC and a little of the RNC we Amercians still have control of the Republican party! I will share a little of the family history of Kerry on the FORBES side!

This article is about the Forbes family related to US Senator John Kerry. For information about the Forbes family associated with Forbes magazine, see Forbes Several of the Forbes family cashed out of their dealings in China after the Opium War, and reinvested in Europe and the United States. Some of the population growth of Chicago and Midwestern Plains states in the middle to late 19th century was due to John Murray Forbes' railroad projects in Michigan and Chicago. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Co., from Chicago west to the Pacific was built by John Murray Forbes who had perhaps a reputation for sound financial management amongst the railroad tycoons of the day.

In 1879, William Forbes, son of John Murray Forbes, risked the fortune to financially back Alexander Graham Bell's telephone company, and become president of the company, a risk which paid off. Cameron Forbes used his wealth to become Governor General of the Philippines.

His niece "Ruth Forbes Paine Young" tapped her Forbes family inheritance to finance the International Peace Academy.

Her husband invented the Bell Helicopter used in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

In a tiny footnote to history, Ruth Forbes Paine Young's son, Michael R. Paine, and his wife Ruth Paine, allowed Maria Oswald, the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald, to live in their house as a family friend, and Oswald's rifle was stored for a time in the Paine's family garage.

Many Forbes family members purchased estates in France and Massachusetts, and generally remain influential there, in local or national politics.

John Forbes Kerry is a U.S. Senator and currently a candidate for President of the U.S. Though he is a beneficiary of several Forbes family trusts (c. 2002), Kerry has not worked in the private sector for Forbes family business interests and has devoted his life to a career in public service. Kerry's first cousin and friend, Brice Lalonde, an environmentalist activist, is a French Green party politician who was a candidate for President of France in 1981 and currently mayor of Saint-Briac-sur-Mer near the Forbes family estate.

CON'T Forbes family

107 posted on 10/03/2004 11:06:27 PM PDT by restornu (By faith Bush subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, and worked miracles.)
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To: jsmellor

Tell your liberal co-workers not to vote for either one of them.


108 posted on 10/03/2004 11:14:30 PM PDT by GoLightly (If it doesn't kill ya, it makes ya stronger.)
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To: BIGLOOK

I think McCain wanted to make it all go away, cuz he didn't want to deal with his own "issues" about it anymore.


109 posted on 10/03/2004 11:18:48 PM PDT by GoLightly (If it doesn't kill ya, it makes ya stronger.)
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To: jsmellor
It's the partisan nature of politics. McCain would have been allowed to serve on the Clinton plantation, but would have had no pull. Kerry, good operative of the correct party would be taken seriously.
110 posted on 10/03/2004 11:30:07 PM PDT by GoLightly (If it doesn't kill ya, it makes ya stronger.)
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To: GoLightly
Respectfully, I disagree. McCain tossed aside the POW/MIA issue along with Kerry for lucrative pay offs or political support from those who would develop business and assets in Viet Nam. Check out the hotels in Cam Ranh and other seaside communities. Check out the prices for a pleasant vacation in a third world country.
111 posted on 10/03/2004 11:41:06 PM PDT by BIGLOOK (I once opposed keelhauling but have recently come to my senses.)
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To: Darksheare

ping


112 posted on 10/03/2004 11:43:56 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW (Save a Democrat! Vote Republican!)
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To: jsmellor
They both smell no one stay 5 years more he must have been the eyes and hears for the reds.

What happen to McCain also happen to others men and some did not come back because of Kerry Friendship with...

So Mccain can only forgive Kerry for himself not others!


Ho Chi min


Clinch fist is the International Communist salute!


113 posted on 10/03/2004 11:48:10 PM PDT by restornu (By faith Bush subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, and worked miracles.)
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To: BIGLOOK

Disagreement noted & processed. I never followed much about him, but tended to pity him. Thought he had a screw loose, but was willing to cut him a little slack for it. I pity him no more. If I lived in his state, I'd have to try to get him voted out of office.

For now, working against one of his partners in crime is the greater need.


114 posted on 10/03/2004 11:59:30 PM PDT by GoLightly (If it doesn't kill ya, it makes ya stronger.)
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To: jsmellor
I want to believe in McCain,

Good luck at that, McCain seems to have his own agenda that I just couldn't square up myself.

115 posted on 10/04/2004 12:10:01 AM PDT by bad company (Global test? Damn I forgot to study.)
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To: GoLightly

bttt


116 posted on 10/04/2004 12:11:50 AM PDT by malia ( 9/11/01 terrorist killed over 3,000 on our homeland - they are still killing in Iraq!)
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To: GoLightly
We all pitied McCain and cut him slack but McCain's Senate performance over the years gives us a view into his character. When he was released from the prison camps in the '70s, he was cut a lot of slack. McCain capitalized on it. (Don't forget his involvement in the Keating 5).
117 posted on 10/04/2004 12:16:52 AM PDT by BIGLOOK (I once opposed keelhauling but have recently come to my senses.)
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Comment #118 Removed by Moderator

To: BIGLOOK

Keating 5 was the first thing that came back to my mind as I read your post & it was sitting there, wanting to come out as I wrote my response. The size of larceny by a dishonest man is only limited by fear of getting caught & the size of opportunity.

As far as his Senate performance, as I said, I haven't paid much attention to him. When I'm paying attention to Senate votes, both of my own Senators make me a lot more ill than the votes of anyone else. If you think McCain is bad, put his record up against Feingold & Kohl.


119 posted on 10/04/2004 12:38:06 AM PDT by GoLightly (If it doesn't kill ya, it makes ya stronger.)
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To: GoLightly
It is no surprise that the present campaign finance reform is the McCain/Feingold bill?
120 posted on 10/04/2004 12:47:06 AM PDT by BIGLOOK (I once opposed keelhauling but have recently come to my senses.)
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