September 10, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 156 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Page S5547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

                                 ______
                                 

                    NATIONAL POW/MIA RECOGNITION DAY

 Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, in honor of National POW/MIA 
Recognition Day this September 18, 2020, I join in raising awareness 
about the more than 81,900 Americans the Defense POW/MIA Accounting 
Agency, DPAA, reports remain missing from World War II, the Korean war, 
the Vietnam war, the Cold War, the Gulf wars and other conflicts. I 
also commend the members of the POW*MIA Awareness Rally Corp. of 
Pocatello, ID, and other similar groups that keep a spotlight on the 
immense service of our American servicemembers and the ongoing need to 
bring them all home.
  My heart goes out to the American families who have carried on 
through years, and even decades, waiting for answers to their 
questions. Those who see a loved one off to war but long after the 
war's end still await that loved one's return shoulder our country's 
sorrow. May all servicemembers' families get the resolution of knowing 
their lost family members have been returned to the country they served 
so admirably.
  Thank you to those who work for and assist the DPAA and related 
efforts to get needed answers and bring all American servicemembers 
home. Piecing together the circumstances, whereabouts, and lives of 
those lost cannot be easy, especially during a global pandemic, but 
bringing them home is critical to honoring their service. The DPAA 
reports that 75 percent of lost Americans are located in the Indo-
Pacific, and more than 41,000 of the missing are presumed lost at sea. 
Despite the difficulty, the agency announced accounting for more than 
70 missing servicemembers since March. Their locations included 
Germany, Laos, North Korea, Papua, Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, 
Romania, Saipan, South Korea, and Tarawa.
  To help with this effort, I have supported and introduced the 
bipartisan Bring Our Heroes Home Act, which would address obstacles 
preventing families and caseworkers from accessing the records needed 
for recovery efforts by putting one entity in charge of prioritizing 
and facilitating the declassification of records related to missing 
servicemembers. We cannot let up in bringing home all our Nation's 
heroes, including the 359 Idahoans, who have yet to be returned. Those 
who have served our Nation deserve no less than to rest at home, and we 
cannot rest until they do.

                          ____________________