The Search for Answers

On December 2,1972, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Anthony C. Shine's A-7D vanished near the border of North Vietnam and Laos.

On vacation a world away in Black Lake, New York, Shine's daughter, Colleen, began to come to grips with what soon became an all too familiar term: Missing In Action. Though only eight years old at the time, Shine still remembers the freezing blizzard outside, preparing for Christmas and finding Dad's wrapped presents months later, untouched by a family living in limbo.

As the months wore on, not knowing became an incredible burden. But this raw emotional purgatory has propelled Shine's work on behalf of other families.

"It's so hard to move forward," she said. "When the war ends... it's not really over for you and your family."

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After what Shine describes as "24 years of chaos" - working with American and Vietnamese officials, on behalf of her case and other families, and testifying before Congress - her father's remains were found and repatriated. In 1996, he took his rightful place in Arlington. She felt closure and profound relief.

"The peace of mind that comes with that is so satisfyingly wonderful," said Shine, who has been an advocate for POW/MIA issues her whole adult life. "To have an answer and have the truth is so much better than the burden of uncertainty."

There are thousands of family members, though, that continue to live with that burden. More than 74,000 Americans are still missing from World War II, with 19,000 of those soldiers' remains deemed recoverable, the rest lost at sea or entombed in sunken vessels, according to the US. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC. The Vietnam War - which served as the genesis for what is now JPAC - still has approximately 1,800 MIAs unaccounted for. Eight thousand Americans are still missing from the Korean War and 120 from the Cold War.

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JPAC is the smallest joint military command and the only one authorized to negotiate directly with foreign delegations, said Sergeant First Class Matthew Chlosta, a public affairs officer for JPAC. Headquartered in Oahu, Hawaii, JPAC was formed in 2003 to merge the programs charged with finding missing service members. JPAC's Central Identification Laboratory uses the latest technology to identify remains and its recovery teams travel to locations around the world to recover the missing. JPAC successfully identifies 70 MIA's a year.

Their missions are as diverse as they are difficult: teams have traveled to paddy fields in Southeast Asia and underwater sites off the coasts of Tunisia and the United Kingdom. Each requires astute diplomacy and scientific diligence, plus the ability to be patient and painstakingly detailed throughout the process.

Time, for the most part, works against JPAC investigators. Witnesses get older and die. Information is often second or third hand. Facts become more difficult to verify. Specific dilemmas are also dictated by geography: Southeast Asia's acidic soil poses problems for evidence and possible remains that the soil in Western Europe does not.

In other ways, though, time works in JPAC's favor. Relationships with other countries continue to yield leads, evidence, and access to sites of interest. In late June, for example, the USNS Bruce C. Heezen performed an oceanographic survey off the coast of Vietnam, studying the ocean floor for evidence of U.S. aircraft and other remnants - the first time such a search has been allowed. Hundreds of aircraft are known to be missing. Finding and recovering under- water sites is key to the command's efforts.

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"We're going to do whatever it takes... to have you reach some sort of conclusion in your minds and in your hearts as to where your loved one is," U.S. Pacific Commander Admiral Timothy J. Keating told the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia recently.

Ann Mills Griffiths, the executive director of the National League, vows to continue pushing American and Southeast Asian officials to fight to find their loved ones.

Griffiths' brother, Navy Reservist Lieutenant Commander James B. Mills, went MIA on September 21, 1966. His last transmission, a single word - "What!" - has driven Ann's decades of work, but she refuses to personally push her brother's case. She leaves that to other family members, feeling that she can't fight for her brother and other families simultaneously.

"I've known all the officials at every level," Griffiths said. "I could have taken advantage of that for personal reasons. But I always thought of things in the larger policy context and for the greater good. And what's good for many is usually good for most."

Her office in Arlington, Virginia, reflects her lifetime of work. The walls are covered with pictures with President Reagan, who made POW/MIA issues a cornerstone of his administration. The National League's families - daughters, sons, brothers, and sisters, linked by something many of them consider as strong as blood - focus on the war in Vietnam.

"You can't extinguish hope without some kind of answers," said Griffiths, who is fighting to maintain the League despite financial troubles.

Peggie McDonald, a member of the organization, has made the same vow to help sustain the League. McDonald's brother, Marine Major Joseph W. McDonald, went missing in 1972 and continues to be classified as MIA. McDonald wears both the POW/MIA black band and a silver bracelet engraved with her brother's name on her wrist, as does the rest of her family.

"Every one of these guys," McDonald said, "deserves to be home."

Jeremy Borden is a writer for ON★PATROL.