June 2008

These are iffy times, a lot is happening, not all of it is obvious, but we seem to be moving to good purpose. A little bad news first, it’s not very likely that we’ll be going into North Korea this year. It is still barely possibly, but the North Koreans have not been “playing us” in that direction. I say this because their whole world is one of hints and signals and indications. They seldom “speak” until they’re ready to “do”. Surprisingly, a couple of outside factors may be working against an invitation this year, things that have nothing to do with our recovery work in North Korea.

First, the Olympics in Beijing. Mainland China is hosting the world, China is North Korea’s “elder brother,” and there is a special relationship. North Korea will be at the Olympics, no great fanfare, just there. Sometimes North Korea feels comfortable playing on the world stage, and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s hard to play up your relative importance when you’re simply a guest, just one of 200 or so.

Second, continuing news coverage and scientific commentary on the Israeli raid that destroyed the nuclear reactor in Syria back in September 2007. No kidding! Here I’m speaking only in terms of public, academic information, but North Korean involvement in the design and construction is very widely understood. This did not go as planned. Quite beyond any U.S. interest, the World scientific community has had a great deal to say, none of it very nice. When things go wrong, as here, seniors in the North Korea government usually “tighten up” a bit on their juniors. That means that some projects, even those enjoying a lot of favor, are put on the back burner. Not for too long, just for a while. But all of that likely means a delay for us, in other words, “next year.”

Now, let’s try some good news. Our recovery teams have been working in South Korea. There are three areas of interest, and a really good chance that different teams will be working in all three. We’ve already had men walking along the so-called “Trail of Tears,” the main POW march routes (mainly from 1951) north and west across the upper end of South Korea. Even as I write, interviews and trial digs are being done. One village (we know it was a POW holding point) is of special interest. Two sets of remains were recovered from nearby in 1953, and a third set in 1993: now we’re building interview leads that, we hope, will take us to the main burials. Work in progress, I have to respect “site integrity,” so I can’t say much more than that right now. But things are happening, as we speak…

A second team will be working in South Korea along and near the Naktong Perimeter, looking for losses from August-September 1950. Battle zones along the river front have been pretty well covered, but more and more the question is one of short-term POWs, who may have died within two or three days and 10 or 20 miles. We don’t always have surviving witnesses, but we do have surviving memories, coming down to the second and third generations in families that have returned to the area. All of this is iffy, but we know that many of the men are still there, nearby, and we’re out to find them.

Finally, on recovery work, another team will be looking at some river and harbor crash sites where aircraft went down. It may still be possible to find wreckage; the searching technology has gotten a lot better. And if we do find “metal,” there is a good chance of recovering remains. It all varies, case by case, but not without hope.

Meanwhile, laboratory work continues. Of special interest to all of us, identification of SFC George Walter Koon [POW 1 December 1950, Medical/9th Infantry] and SFC Jack O. Tye [POW 27 November 1950, L/38th Infantry] has just been announced. Both men were captured during the extended battle around Kujang and Kunu-ri. But their recoveries were made just north of the Unsan battle zone, where the 8th Cavalry had fought on 2 November 1950. Here’s the story: many of the POWs from Kujang and Kunu-ri crossed through the area, just north of Unsan, en route to Pukchin-Tarigol, where they were at Christmas time, before going on to Camp 5 in 1951. Many years later, while our recovery teams were working at Unsan, our North Korean escorts allowed them to go off the edge of the battle field to do remains searches at nearby villages. The teams knew immediately that these recoveries were POWs, because they were not on the battlefield. They also knew that the men were not from the Unsan battle, because they were in different villages, not along the route that the Unsan POWs had used. From there, it all became a case of reconstructing who these men might be. Between site work, lab work, and DNA sampling, we finally settled on who two of the men were. Several companions are still in work, and all are from the Kujang and Kunu-ri battle zone.

I’m really proud of what the lab did here; it was a lot of very difficult work. But they got to the answers and they “did it right”. That’s the whole idea… best to all!