The Long Way Home

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 5, 1999 | by John Elvin

An Insight reader asks what President Clinton is doing about Vietnam-era prisoners of war/missing in action servicemen and provides several clips from newsletters on the subject. The information in the clips wasn't attributed, but a comparative study shows that the source for several of the items almost certainly was articles and columns from Insight. It is good to see our information making the rounds, and the efforts of readers who help us monitor that process truly are appreciated.

A recent development on the MIA front shows that, in addition to international bureaucratic and political roadblocks, other factors are at work. Remains of those killed in action may not be discovered for decades. Such appears to be the case with regard to three U.S. servicemen missing in action from World War II.

According to an Associated Press report, a military identification lab in Hawaii has just confirmed the identities of Maj. Frank H. Blakey, 2nd Lt. John S. McConnon and TSgt. Wayne O. Shaffner. Blakey disappeared near Aitape, New Guinea, in June 1944. McConnon and Shaffner were crew members aboard a B-24 Liberator shot down by German antiaircraft fire in Albania. The three, at long last have gone back to their families for burial.