WWRM monthly update for March 2008:
India: Mike P. and Gary Z. have made monumental gains in pushing for recoveries in India. The India Gov't has welcomed the US with open arms. There is going to be a meeting the beginning of this month between JPAC and the Indian Gov't.
Philippines: There are talks between JPAC and the Philippines for some sites to be looked at and possibly excavated in the coming year. We will send you an update on that and we hope that some of our member's sites are included. Anyone who has a case in the Philippines please get your items together and we will push for some type of resolution there.
Europe: This from the European Team: "We continue to receive new cases for Europe. There are two Dutch cases, one in Luxembourg, and numerous efforts involving MIA's in Germany. At present, our greatest challenge is document research. This is particularly critical in the cases of buried unknowns which we believe have a potential to be identified. "
H Res. 111: We need to all push to have this moved on. Please ask your Congressional Representative to cosponsor H Res. 111. If they have already cosponsored, then please thank them and ask that they inquire with the Rules Committee as to why no action has been taken on a resolution with 263 cosponsors.
Documentary: Judy Ruzylo has been in contact with some of our members to start putting together a documentary on our missing. She has also stated that the film maker MAY contribute funds to some of the searches. I will ask her when she thinks the documentary will be completed. I am sure it will take some time
X-files and the Brann Case: Sen. Snowe is going to push once again for X-files and has taken a summary on the Brann case to try to at a very minimum to push to have this resolved. She has a new military assistant who has worked with the Armed Services committee and who is familiar with the X-files. We hope for a large push on getting these files released.
Our new website: Please be sure to check it out: www.wwiimissing.com Gina Zaetz is the webmaster (many thanks to her for taking on this huge task and making our webpage a reality) - any suggestions or comments should go to her (garyngina@earthlink.net or wwiimissing@gmail.com). Also, if you would like your photos added please send them to me to add to the album. Also please pass along that our new email address for strictly WWII is wwiimissing@gmail.com, and of course you can still email me at this email address.
Meetings: Strategy meeting was held at DPMO this week - I will be forwarding the presentation for your review and comments so that we can respond back. I should have this out to you by the end of the week. I am just waiting for DPMO to put it in PDF format.
Upcoming Family Update meetings (if anyone is going please let me know): You can sign up on line right now for the following meetings:
March 15 - Portland Oregon
April 19 - Hartford, CT (I will be attending this one)
MtDNA: We need to track whose families have donated mtDNA and whose families have not - please send to me whether or not you have donated DNA. I will track it on our membership list. If you have not then we can get a kit out to your family. This is very important to help build the DNA database.
Where we need help from our member community:
Archivist: Still need someone to go to the Archives - this could be shared between members - we would like to get to the Archives either 4 or 6 times a year at a minimum - if you are interested please let me know. If you need documents please let me know that as well.
Membership leader: Someone who can track members and also solicit new members.
Grant requestor/Fund Raiser: This can be a shared task as well. We obviously need to raise funds to locate our missing. We need someone who will work with a treasurer to raise funds either via grants or fund raising events. Please contact me if you can help even in the smallest way. As you know JPAC will not actively locate sites but rather react to located sites. We need to find these sites in order to have our loved ones brought home. Any suggestions are most welcome.
Board Members: We need at least 2 more Family Members brought on to the board. This organization was put together with family members in mind and we need input from family members to move forward. If you are interested in working with the Board of Directors please contact Mike, Jack or myself. Our emails are listed on the web page.
Suggestion: Also I wanted to add/ask if you would like a members corner where each of you can have a turn on letting us know what is going on in your lives or if you wanted to write up a paragraph summary of your loved one in our newsletter. Please let me know what you think and we can highlight a few a month.
As always if you have questions, comments or suggestions please contact any of us.
Lisa Phillips, President
WWRM (WWII Families for the Return of the Missing)
PO Box 804
Windham, ME 04062
207-939-2051
