VFW Washington Weekly, September 5, 2008

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Posted at 03:53 PM on Friday, September 5, 2008 by Missouri

NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE SERVICE

1. Congress Returns Next Week

NATIONAL SECURITY & FOREIGN AFFAIRS

1. WWII MIAs Identified

2. Reserve Component Mobilization

NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE SERVICE

1. Congress Returns Next Week: Congress returns from their August recess
next week to many important issues that still await final action with
only three weeks left to finish important funding bills and others
before their scheduled adjournment. Call your elected members and let
them know that you expect them to finish the work they started: To fund
VA and pass important defense and veteran-related legislation before the
federal government's new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

NATIONAL SECURITY & FOREIGN AFFAIRS

1. WWII MIAs Identified: The Department of Defense POW/Missing
Personnel Office (DPMO) announced that the remains of three U.S.
servicemen, missing from World War II, have been identified and will be
returned to their families for burial with full military honors. They
are Ensign Irvin A.R. Thompson, of Hudson County, NJ; Ensign Eldon P.
Wyman, of Portland, OR; and Fireman 2nd Class Lawrence A. Boxrucker, of
Dorchester, WI; all U.S. Navy. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor
Dec. 7, 1941, the battleship USS Oklahoma suffered multiple torpedo hits
and capsized. As a result, 429 sailors and Marines died. Following the
attack, 36 of these servicemen were identified and the remaining 393
were buried as unknowns in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 2003, an independent researcher contacted the
Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) with information he believed
indicated that one of the USS Oklahoma casualties who was buried as an
unknown could be positively identified. After reviewing the case, JPAC
exhumed the casket, and discovered that it contained what is believed to
be the remains of at least 28 other men in addition to the three
identified. Among other forensic identification tools and
circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA
Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA and dental
comparisons in the identification of remains for Thompson, Wyman and
Boxrucker. Additional remains that could not be attributed to these
servicemen will undergo further analysis.

2. Reserve Component Mobilization: The total number currently on active
duty in support of the partial mobilization for the Army National Guard
and Army Reserve is 84,820; Navy Reserve, 5,743; Air National Guard and
Air Force Reserve, 11,254; Marine Corps Reserve, 8,043; and the Coast
Guard Reserve, 738. This brings the total number of mobilized Guard and
Reserve personnel to 110,598, a decrease of 115 from last week. These
figures include the totals of voluntary and involuntary activated
Reserve Component members. Of this total, 84,854 personnel have been
involuntarily mobilized, while 25,744 are voluntarily serving on active
duty.

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