Pentagon’s MIA search “dysfunctional”?
Several of you have sent us a link to an Army Times article about the Associated Press research on an internal investigation that DoD did on it’s own Missing In Action operations to recover the remains of service members who haven’t been accounted for from the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The report found that those recovery operations were “dysfunctional”, and in some cases, corrupt;
The report paints a picture of a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a military-run group known as JPAC and headed by a two-star general, as woefully inept and even corrupt. The command is digging up too few clues on former battlefields, relying on inaccurate databases and engaging in expensive “boondoggles” in Europe, the study concludes.
In North Korea, the JPAC was snookered into digging up remains between 1996 and 2000 that the North Koreans apparently had taken out of storage and planted in former American fighting positions, the report said. Washington paid the North Koreans hundreds of thousands of dollars to “support” these excavations.
Some recovered bones had been drilled or cut, suggesting they had been used by the North Koreans to make a lab skeleton.
Yeah, so who would have thought that our former, and in some cases, current, enemies would force us into situations we might otherwise avoid? North Koreans like our cash money, so why wouldn’t they delight in manipulating our agencies into pouring more into their dysfunctional economy? The same goes for the Vietnamese.
I think it’s less the fault of the DoD and more the fault of the circumstances under which they labor. We’ve seen a large number of missing returned and interred back in this country over the past few years, and I think we should be more surprised at that than we are over the fact that Pentagon agencies are working under corrupt circumstances. In this case, I don’t think that DoD is at fault for money we’re wasting. It’s probably more the fault of the politicians, like John McCain and John Kerry, who have forced us to operate under these political conditions.
Category: Veterans Issues
The ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars’ estimate is orders of magnitude low for what we passed to the NKs. One hand off for an operation near Hamhung was over a million cash in 2001 dollars.
North Koreans probably warehouses full of G.I. remains for years to come in getting $$$ out of us… don’t underestimate ’em.
So MajGen (Ret.) Tom squashed the report since it found misgivings about his management of the program? Sounds like almost every other general officer in service today.
No accountability.
What have you all heard about the other ORG’s out there doing the same mission? Moore’s Marauders (MIA Charities, etc.)
These guys were down there at Pearl or Shafter; can’t remember, but I always thought they were pretty squared away.
Guess not.
I think it’s about that time to rename the Department of Defense to Department of Dysfunctional.
I commanded JPAC’s detachment in Hanoi from 2008-2010 when this “study” took place. The results were so bad that even I wasn’t allowed to see the entire report as an O5 in command with MG Tom as my rater/senior rater. Truth be told, the problems within the unit are systemic and MG Tom inherited these problems. I believe the study was started with good intentions, but when the data started rolling in from all of us from within the unit to the researcher, the results became “close hold” and GO-level political expediency and the status quo became the way forward instead of trying to seriously address any of the problems. JPAC has the most honorable mission in the military…few would dispute that fact. But the way the organization operates is an entirely different issue. Even the current commander, MG McKeague, said he would not dispute those who say the organization is dysfunctional (quoted from the article). To quote a former NCO that I respect highly and spent much more time in the unit than I – “We have had people hired and assigned in key (senior) leadership positions, military and civilians, that are on their own agendas, individuals who knew/know nothing about the root mission/reason for the existence/reason for the unit.” Until the commander of the unit (or an outside agency) is willing to address that core problem, the unit will remain dysfunctional and that isn’t the right answer. This mission deserves the best that our military and government have to give…Until They Are Home.
Exactly what do you expect from a government bureaucracy? You expect them to finish their job? You expect them to use less than their budget?
Hah! I scoff at your naivete!