The Pentagon has expanded the Purple Heart eligibility criteria to include prisoners of war who died in captivity beginning with the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, making an estimated 17,000 deceased U.S. prisoners of war eligible for the medal.

The revised policy presumes such deaths were the result of enemy action unless compelling evidence is presented to the contrary. Contact the Army's Military Awards Branch, (703) 325-8700; Navy Personnel Command, Retired Records Section, (314) 592-1150; Air Force Personnel Center, (800) 616-3775; or Marine Corps Military Awards Branch, (703) 784-9340 for further information.

Posthumous awards can be made to a family member or other representative of the deceased service member. Each branch of the military will announce its process for applying for the awards.

  Sgt. Brandon Sayles, a 2000 Pahoa High School graduate, was crowned heavyweight champion for the second time Oct. 5 at the fourth annual Army Combatives Championship Tournament conducted at Fort Benning, Ga. He defeated Staff Sgt. Benzell Vereen, of Fort Sill, Okla., for the 2008 heavyweight crown. Sayles, who is from Puna on the Big Island, won the heavyweight title at the 2006 competition, but could not defend his title in 2007 because he was deployed to Iraq. Sayles is assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. He joined the Army in 2002 and was deployed to Iraq in 2005 and in 2007.

  More than 300 soldiers representing 55 teams from around the world competed in seven weight classes during the tournament. Modern Combatives is a mixed martial art form combining Brazilian jiu-jitsu, boxing, clinch hitting, takedowns and ground-fighting techniques. Combatives also employs techniques borrowed from judo, kick boxing and Greco-Roman wrestling.

  The Ecuadorian navy's ship Guayas will be in Honolulu Harbor for a port visit Thursday to Sunday and will be open to the public. Its skipper is Capt. Fredy Garcia Calle, who commands 22 officers, 100 enlisted sailors and 38 midshipmen, including two women. The ship has visited Japan, Russia, South Korea and China. It left Ecuador on April 28. For further information, contact Cmdr. Victor Ricaurte, Naval Attache Ecuadorian Navy, Washington, D.C., at (202) 328-6958; fax: (202) 332-7954, or e-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

  The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command - whose mission is to achieve the fullest possible accounting of all missing Americans from the nation's past wars - recognized its fifth anniversary on Wednesday, noting that it conducted more than 368 recovery and investigation missions around the globe. Some of the countries JPAC teams have operated in include: China, North Korea, South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Canada, Palau, Albania, Philippines, Newfoundland, Papua New Guinea, Germany, Hungary, France, Australia, Fiji, Solomon Islands, India and Japan.

On Oct. 1, 2003, the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii at Hickam Air Force Base and U.S. Pacific Command's Joint Task Force Full Accounting at Camp Smith were merged into JPAC.

The unit was initially formed in 1973 after the Vietnam war and was called the Joint Casualty Resolution Center and worked with the newly formed Central Identification Laboratory in Thailand, which handled the remains and identification of Americans killed during the war. By 1976 its operations were relocated to Hawaii with the lab name changed to the Central Identification Laboratory. Its mission was broadened to include the search, recovery and identification of service members killed in Korea, World War II and any future conflicts.

In 1992 it became Joint Task Force-Full Accounting in response to an increased interest from the U.S. government and the public to account for those missing in action in Southeast Asia.