Merger unites agencies
that try to account for MIAs
The mission of accounting for Americans missing in action will continue with a new name.
Army Brig. Gen. W. Montague "Que" Winfield, former 25th Infantry Division assistant commander for support, today assumes command of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, which consists of 425 military personnel and civilians who used to work for the Army Central Identification Laboratory and the U.S. Pacific Command's Joint Task Force-Full Accounting.
Johnie Webb, who moved the Central Identification Laboratory to Hawaii from Thailand in 1976 as an Army captain, said the merger of those two agencies is "a chance to become more effective."
Joel Patterson, deputy director of operations of the new organization, noted that the group's work is "a very, very emotional mission."
Patterson, 51, is one of seven members of what was originally the Joint Casualty Resolution Center. He was with the center in January 1992 when it was reconstituted as Joint Task Force-Full Accounting and moved to Camp Smith from Barbers Point Naval Air Station. He stayed on after he retired from the Marine Corps in 1994.
"It hits you," Patterson said following yesterday's deactivation of the task force, "mostly when you talk to the families."
"There's so many different emotions, beginning with feelings of success when you are able to reunite family members with those they have lost."
Webb, who is the new agency's deputy director, said the case that stands out involves the identification of the Air Force pilot who was placed in Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery in 1984. With the help of DNA testing and identification laboratory research nearly two decades later, the pilot was identified as 1st Lt. Michael Blassie.
Before he retired in 1994 as an Army lieutenant colonel, Webb commanded the identification laboratory for 11 years, and stayed on after retirement as its deputy.
There have also been low points, Patterson added, referring to an April 7, 2001, helicopter crash in Vietnam that killed seven staff members who were on a mission.
Although the task force and identification laboratory have merged, their operations will be split between two locations: Hickam Air Force Base, which has been home of the Army laboratory, and Camp Smith, where the task force has been since January 1992.
The Army's forensic laboratory was established in 1973 in Thailand after the close of the Vietnam War. It was relocated to Honolulu three years later to focus on Americans unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. Since its inception, the forensic laboratory has identified more than 1,150 MIAs.
The task force was established in 1992 during a turbulent period surrounding the status of Vietnam War MIAs and prisoners of war. It has worked on more than 3,800 investigations, leading to the identification of more than 700 Americans previously listed as MIAs. Many of the cases have involved staff members from the Army forensic laboratory.
Earlier this week, the identification laboratory said that remains of four servicemen, including the only Coast Guard pilot listed as missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and were returned to their families for burial. They are U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Jack C. Rittichier, Barberton, Ohio; U.S. Air Force Capt. Richard C. Yeend Jr., Mobile, Ala.; U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Elmer L. Holden, Oklahoma City; and U.S. Air Force Sgt. James D. Locker, Sidney, Ohio.
About 1,800 Americans are still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War, 8,100 from the Korean War and 78,000 from World War II.
