Thanks in large part to your efforts; nearly 3,000 letters were forwarded to President Obama and the Senators and Congressmen of 48 states.  Citizens of 14 Allied countries joined in.  And today it paid off

All these citizens and allies asked for one thing-  that we honor our obligation to the Missing of all wars to seek the fullest possible accounting of them all, regardless of war.  Specifically they asked that the 2010 National Defense Authorization, with its enhanced MIA recovery language, be passed.

Your efforts, and those of others that share your belief that our commitment to these missing is a debt that does not expire, have paid off.  This morning at 2:30 Eastern time President Obama signed the bill.  A copy of the relevant section is attached.

The National Defense Authorization Act includes two big victories for MIA families and all that share a sense of obligation to the missing.

1.       The act instructs the Secretary of Defense to  “implement a comprehensive, coordinated, integrated, and fully resourced program to account for persons” Missing from World War II, Korea, The Cold War, the Indochina war (Vietnam), The Persian Gulf War and other conflicts the Secretary designates.  In plain English, it instructs the Secretary of Defense to develop and fund a program to deal with the missing of all wars, with no prioritization among them.

2.       The act instructs the Secretary of Defense, to “provide such funds, personnel, and resources as the Secretary considers appropriate to increase significantly the capability and capacity of the Department of Defense, the Armed Forces, and commanders of the combatant commands to account for missing persons so that, beginning with fiscal year 2015, the POW/MIA accounting community has sufficient resources to ensure that at least 200 missing persons are accounted for under the program annually.”  That is triple the recent rate of activity.  A House proposal to further increase that goal to 350 in 2020 did not make it to the final bill, but the “Conference Notes”, explaining the thinking of the Senators and Congressmen involved, make clear the goal is no to limit ourselves to a 200 “ceiling”.

There is still much to do, and we need to keep engaged

The devil is always in the details.  There are thousands of cases reported to the Military in the past that have not been recovered, and there is only a modest effort today at seeking the missing from the older wars.  We’ll need to work hard to make sure that these rules, encouraging as they are, are interpreted in a way that leads both to active efforts to find all missing from all wars and expeditious recovery of remains when found.  And we’ll need to make sure the effort is funded consistent with that plan.

How can you help?

As the Military begins implementing these guidelines, and as the funding process begins, I’ll ask you to re-contact your Congressmen and Senators to share your desire to have these rules implemented in a way that calls for systematic research and prompt recovery of all accessible missing.  We’ll need the Armed Services Committees to advocate the interpretations we discussed and we’ll need the Defense Appropriations Committees, in conjunction with the Defense Department, to fund the effort.  I’ll send you emails as that effort progresses.  In the interim I ask that you visit http://www.projecthomecoming.org/petition and consider adding you voice to our new email campaign, which acknowledges the passage of the National Defense Authorization and calls for the quick implementation of a research and recovery effort for all those still missing.  Please do so even if you already signed the earlier petition.  And, finally, please ask others to do the same.  To keep our momentum growing we need to show increased numbers of interested voters

Thank you for your efforts these past few months.  You can take pride in having done your bit to honor our debt to these men and women.  I hope you choose to keep up your efforts until we have accounted for and recovered all the missing of all the wars.