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APPENDIX 2

Individual POW, MIA, and KIA/BNR Cases

Committee investigators reviewed the case files of all priority cases and the majority of all other unaccounted-for cases on the list of 2,265 unaccounted-for servicemen.

Current Administration Lists

Since 1987, the Defense Department (DoD) has developed a list of priority cases totalling 269, less 73 resolved, for a total of 196 cases as of August 1992.

Included in the 196 cases are 135 cases designated "Last Known Alive" cases. These involve Americans whose loss incidents include facts suggesting that one of the Southeast Asian governments should have additional details about their fate. The results from U.S. investigations in Vietnam and Laos confirm this analysis. In September 1992, DoD added more cases to the priority list, all cases involving losses in Laos.

Priority List Development

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed Gen. John W. Vessey, Jr. (USA-Ret.) to be the President's Special Emissary to Vietnam on the POW/MIA issue. This was the beginning of a renewed effort to resolve the fate of those unaccounted-for from the war in Southeast Asia.

In August 1987, Gen. Vessey's effort led to the preparation of a list of 380 individuals of priority interest. This compilation, often referred to as the Vessey I list, included 80 of DoD's current priority cases and became the focus of U.S. field investigations in Vietnam.

In November 1989, 39 more cases from the original Vessey I list were added to the priority category, producing a list of 119 priority cases, referred to as the Vessey II list. The priority cases that Gen. Vessey pursued were not developed by him personally, but represent the overall efforts of the DoD. Each list developed over the past five years has represented an expanding process of contacts and cooperation.

Today, 61 of those on the Vessey II list have been accounted for: 22 through the repatriation of remains; 39 through the discovery of compelling evidence that the man died, even though his remains have not yet been recovered.

The Last Known Alive List

At the time of the development of the Vessey II list, the Administration's accountability efforts were expanded -- from field investigations only in Vietnam to include a program of expanded cooperation and more regular field investigations in Laos. This resulted in the selection of 47 additional priority cases in Laos not previously included in either the Vessey I or Vessey II lists.

It also coincided with DoD's development of a list of 135 individuals last known by the U.S. to have been alive. The effort was part of a continually expanded process that never was intended to be an inflexible or all-encompassing list. It included 58 cases not yet resolved from the Vessey II list, plus 77 additional priority cases compiled after a focused, case-by-case review undertaken by DIA early in 1990 of the intelligence files of every unaccounted-for American; the review was similar in scope to those in the Vessey II list (some last known alive in captivity, others who could have been captured alive). Cases on DoD's priority case list are investigated in conjunction with Last Known Alive cases when they are in close proximity to a Last Known Alive case.

Case Summaries

The Senate Select Committee staff has prepared case summaries for the priority cases that the Administration is now investigating. These provide the facts about each case, describe the circumstances under which the individual was lost, and detail the information learned since the date of loss. Information in the case summaries is limited to information from casualty files, does not include any judgments by Committee staff, and attempts to relate essential facts. The Committee acknowledges that POW/MIAs' primary next-of- kin know their family members' cases in more comprehensive detail than summarized here and recognizes the limitations that the report format imposes on these summaries.

On Dec. 1, 1992, Vice Chairman Smith published a compendium of 324 compelling cases. A copy of the analyses of Committee staff and the Defense Intelligence Agency is attached.

These listings include abbreviated column headings with the following meanings:

REFNO : Case reference number

LNAME : Last Name

FMN : First and Middle Name initials

NSA : Information reportedly based on correlation by the National Security Agency JSSA : Information from returning debriefings in JSSA documents

LNA : DoD Last Known Alive category

DIA79 : Information in a 1979 DIA printout obtained by Committee staff from Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigator Tracy Usry

JTF : Joint Task Force casualty code now obsolete

NOK : Correlation from next-of-kin

POW : Listed POW by the Defense Department at Operation Homecoming

MISC : Other sources of information