A POW/MIA Honor Page can't really be made without one. Here
is the story of how the POW/MIA bios came to be, thanks to the tireless efforts
of a wonderful lady,
Margaret Bates, founder of Homecoming II Project, and everyone involved
in the Homecoming II Project. The following is reprinted with her
permission:
"In 1984, I founded Homecoming II Project and wrote a bio on a Kansas
City Air Force man named Dayton Ragland. I felt it was important for people
to be able to make a personal connection with their missing man.
As time went by, I met more POW/MIA family members -- Lynn, Carolyn,
Karen, and Sherrill Standerwick, Evelyn & Bob Cressman, Marian Shelton,
Mary Matejov, Earl Hopper, Charlie & Jean Ray, Elzene Gourley, and many
others. They all were happy to provide information and photos for bios on
their missing loved ones. We began to package POW bracelets with bios, when
we had them.
In 1986, using the data printouts obtained from several sources, including
Adrian Fisch of Red Badge of Courage in Minnesota, Michael Caron of Project
Prairie Fire in Kansas, Russ Schilling of Task Force Omega in Iowa, I built
a database which centralized all the available information on the missing.
When Kathy Parsels left her position at the National League of Families,
she sent me copies of all the bio files there. I appreciated the copies,
but was very sad to see that the organization had far less information than
even Homecoming II had at that early date. Kathy also loaned me a copy of
a book written by Sherry Aument, which had hand-drawn pictures of many missing
men, together with brief information.
Betty Hopper cleaned her attic and sent me all her old VIVA newspapers
and postcards which families had printed before the end of the Vietnam War,
which had a wealth of information and many photos. (VIVA was the organization
that "invented" the POW bracelets during the war and did an astounding job
of publicizing the plight of the POWs.)
I bought books -- memoirs, unit histories, histories of Vietnam, aircraft
books -- anything that might have a clue, and clipped newspaper articles.
Donna Long, a long-time activist, cleared out her files and donated all her
old clippings and artifacts to Homecoming II Project. This was another rich
source, as her collection was considerable.
In 1988, Patty Skelly of Task Force Omega convinced an Army Casualty
officer to read case synopses to her on missing Army personnel. She taped
the phone calls and sent the tapes to me for transcribing. This resulted
in many new bios, and added unit information. Some of the information was
sketchy or distorted, such as the case of Jimmy Ray, but in many cases, vacuums
were filled. The following year, the Navy distributed computer disks with
their case files. These contained valuable unit information, but little
significant information.
Some of the bios were pieced together using coordinates, historical events,
or other information such as unit histories, aircraft types, etc. Personnel
could be matched to the same incident by a code in one of the data lists.
Others could be placed in the arena by date and loss coordinates (the amazing
Bat 22 story, for instance, or the bloodbath at Kham Duc Special Forces Camp,
where many seemingly unrelated personnel were lost).
Some arbitrary judgments were made by studying the various coding on
the data printouts, such as which man in a two-man aircraft was the pilot,
the individual's MOS, area of loss, nature of the loss, etc. For example,
occasionally, the mission could be determined with a fair degree of accuracy
by the type and model of aircraft was flown. Some models were specifically
outfitted for bombing, surveillance, search and rescue, or other mission
types. These bios are the least informative, and least personal. But I felt
it was important that whatever information we could gather be put into a
bio.
Chuck Schantag became interested in the bio project and formed a group
called the POW Network in 1989. Homecoming II provided him with disks of
all the bios that had been written, and he then developed a BBS (this was
before Internet existed), from which the bios could be downloaded or read
on-line. Today, he and wife Mary maintain a website for the POW Network and
maintain a searchable database which provides elements of information on
those men for whom bios were never written. They have done a considerable
amount of updating as new information comes to light.
I always believed that the bios must be shared freely with all groups
and individuals concerned by the plight of the men we abandoned in Southeast
Asia. Today, there are links upon links among concerned people all over the
world who proudly display POW/MIA bios and other information on their websites.
I am very proud to have been a part in the beginning of this wonderful effort
by so many."
Margaret (Nevin) Bates
Thank you Margaret Bates, Homecoming II Project, POW Network, and everyone
involved in making these bios possible and available!
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