Guest Columnist
Last week, the North Koreans turned over to the United States the remains of 55 servicemen lost and missing during the Korean War more than six decades ago. The military will transfer these remains to the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii for forensic testing. It will be a time-consuming process to identify these remains to ensure there are no mistakes. Those that are positively identified will be returned to their families for burial with military honors.
Of all the military casualty statuses, the one most feared within the military family is MIA – missing in action. The status of the serviceman is in limbo – he or she is not officially listed as dead (KIA), wounded or a prisoner. Instead, they are simply missing – status unknown.
There are no more letters or other means of communication. Their loved ones do not know what to think: do we continue to wait or move on? Months stretch into years, then decades. In some cases, the answers never come. Instead, we turn to the only solace possible – prayer and our trust in the Lord.
Aviators and Special Operators who work behind enemy lines have a latent fear of being lost with status unknown – MIA. We make a big deal about never leaving our dead behind, but in many cases, since they are lost so deep behind enemy lines with no distress call, it is all but impossible to discover what went wrong or recover their remains. Before leaving for a war zone, many have a conversation with their spouses that goes something like this: ‘If I am MIA, you must be prepared to move on with your life and do what is best for our children.' As you might imagine, it is not an easy conversation.
During my combat experience nearly a half-century ago, I never had the opportunity to have that difficult conversation. I was just 23 and had a wife and baby daughter … but I was headed to the relative safety of a non-warzone in Korea, so the thought never crossed my mind. Three weeks after arrival, I was flying combat missions over North and South Vietnam, dodging all sorts of danger. Notifying Linda by letter of my new location and the associated danger wasn't easy; I can't imagine the shock and fear she had to endure when my first letter from the combat zone arrived.
In my first year at the Academy, two of my senior mentors were Scotty Albright and Jim Steadman. Within two years, both were missing from night air missions over Laos. Their remains have never been recovered. At some point years later, the Department of Defense changed their status to killed-in-action, but the questions will always remain.
A personal note: I can still recall just before we departed for Christmas leave in December 1968 when the name of "Lieutenant John Scott Albright, Class of 1967, missing-in-action" was read from the staff tower at Mitchell Hall in the announcements before lunch. Announcements like this were common then as the Vietnam War was in full fury and casualties were high, nevertheless I was shocked. Scotty Albright was my first commander in the Fighting Fourth Squadron. He was my hero… and he was missing. His mother died a few years ago at age 91, in West Virginia. Imagine the loss she and others like her have had to endure for so long.
On Memorial Day, a cousin of Linda's mentioned a family member lost during World War II in the Pacific. His name was Robert John Sundquist, of Muskegon, Mi. Armed with that information, I did some research. Ensign Sundquist was an F-4U Corsair pilot lost on an air mission over the Sea of Japan a few months before the end of the war, body not recovered. Very poor weather may have contributed to his loss. A year after the war, his status was changed to KIA. His name is etched into the Pacific Memorial in Hawaii in the court of the missing. He was an only child, age 24 at the time of loss.
The number of missing American servicemen from World War II, Korea and Vietnam is close to a hundred thousand, but that number is slowly being whittled away as more mysteries are solved. Remains are being found by crash investigation teams to this day and shipped to the lab in Hawaii for identification. Of course, those lost at sea like Bob Sundquist will never be found. Instead, they are known to God and protected by his capable hands. For that, we can be eternally grateful. Rest in peace.