SR0690 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0690 LRB101 14536 ALS 63434 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Today, there are an estimated 21.7 million veterans living in the United States, the oldest having served in World War II; and

WHEREAS, From Illinois, there are approximately 3,000 to 4,000 veterans from World War II, 300-400 veterans from the Korean War, and 65 veterans from the Vietnam War; and

WHEREAS, Since the United States was founded, over 80 million Americans have served in the United States Military; and

WHEREAS, Many soldiers never returned home and may still be classified as Prisoners of War (POWs), Missing in Action (MIA) or died while in captivity (POW-MIA-BNR-DCC-XX); and

WHEREAS, Currently, over 80,000 American service personnel are still considered MIA; and

WHEREAS, Many of the wartime missing in action, who need to be recovered and returned, remain entombed within the borders of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, North Korea, China, and Russia; and

WHEREAS, The Defense Intelligence Agency established the Stony Beach program in 1986 in an effort to help resolve these cases; the Stony Beach mission is to achieve the fullest possible accounting of unaccounted-for Americans from the Vietnam War; it is the only U.S. government entity focused solely on Vietnam War POW/MIA accounting; and

WHEREAS, The United States and the DIA-Stony Beach ground teams need to continue to pursue any leads that could result in the arrest of former wartime criminals; and

WHEREAS, The wartime interrogation teams need to be captured and brought to justice, as there is no statute of limitations for war crimes; and

WHEREAS, The former Select U.S. Sub-committee on POW-MIA Affairs was allowed to dissolve without notification and needs to be reestablished; and

WHEREAS, The U.S. Senate POW-MIA committee discovered that a 1,000-page report was generated, detailing the many challenges and efforts to bring MIAs home; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we support all efforts to locate and return those missing in action from Illinois, including the reestablishment of previous committees; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge all U.S. Military organizations to abide by the Department of Defense rules and policies when DPAA JFI-JFR teams are locked into excavating a potential grave site, so as not to compromise or jeopardize the site; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge the U.S. Department of Defense DPAA to remove those currently listed as Dead-XX and give these American service personnel the same privilege and opportunity of being reclassified onto the Master Excavation Listing (MEL) country by country.