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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, Today, there are an estimated 21.7 million | ||||||
| 3 | veterans living in the United States, the oldest having served | ||||||
| 4 | in World War II; and
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| 5 | WHEREAS, From Illinois, there are approximately 3,000 to | ||||||
| 6 | 4,000 veterans from World War II, 300-400 veterans from the | ||||||
| 7 | Korean War, and 65 veterans from the Vietnam War; and
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| 8 | WHEREAS, Since the United States was founded, over 80 | ||||||
| 9 | million Americans have served in the United States Military; | ||||||
| 10 | and
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| 11 | WHEREAS, Many soldiers never returned home and may still be | ||||||
| 12 | classified as Prisoners of War (POWs), Missing in Action (MIA) | ||||||
| 13 | or died while in captivity (POW-MIA-BNR-DCC-XX); and
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| 14 | WHEREAS, Currently, over 80,000 American service personnel | ||||||
| 15 | are still considered MIA; and
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| 16 | WHEREAS, Many of the wartime missing in action, who need to | ||||||
| 17 | be recovered and returned, remain entombed within the borders | ||||||
| 18 | of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, North Korea, China, and Russia; and | ||||||
| 19 | WHEREAS, The Defense Intelligence Agency established the | ||||||
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| 1 | Stony Beach program in 1986 in an effort to help resolve these | ||||||
| 2 | cases; the Stony Beach mission is to achieve the fullest | ||||||
| 3 | possible accounting of unaccounted-for Americans from the | ||||||
| 4 | Vietnam War; it is the only U.S. government entity focused | ||||||
| 5 | solely on Vietnam War POW/MIA accounting; and | ||||||
| 6 | WHEREAS, The United States and the DIA-Stony Beach ground | ||||||
| 7 | teams need to continue to pursue any leads that could result in | ||||||
| 8 | the arrest of former wartime criminals; and | ||||||
| 9 | WHEREAS, The wartime interrogation teams need to be | ||||||
| 10 | captured and brought to justice, as there is no statute of | ||||||
| 11 | limitations for war crimes; and | ||||||
| 12 | WHEREAS, The former Select U.S. Sub-committee on POW-MIA | ||||||
| 13 | Affairs was allowed to dissolve without notification and needs | ||||||
| 14 | to be reestablished; and | ||||||
| 15 | WHEREAS, The U.S. Senate POW-MIA committee discovered that | ||||||
| 16 | a 1,000-page report was generated, detailing the many | ||||||
| 17 | challenges and efforts to bring MIAs home; therefore, be it
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| 18 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | ||||||
| 19 | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | ||||||
| 20 | we support all efforts to locate and return those missing in | ||||||
| 21 | action from Illinois, including the reestablishment of | ||||||
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| 1 | previous committees; and be it further
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| 2 | RESOLVED, That we urge all U.S. Military organizations to | ||||||
| 3 | abide by the Department of Defense rules and policies when DPAA | ||||||
| 4 | JFI-JFR teams are locked into excavating a potential grave | ||||||
| 5 | site, so as not to compromise or jeopardize the site; and be it | ||||||
| 6 | further
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| 7 | RESOLVED, That we urge the U.S. Department of Defense DPAA | ||||||
| 8 | to remove those currently listed as Dead-XX and give these | ||||||
| 9 | American service personnel the same privilege and opportunity | ||||||
| 10 | of being reclassified onto the Master Excavation Listing (MEL) | ||||||
| 11 | country by country.
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