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Members of America's armed forces are serving around the world in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait,
and Korea. Far from family and friends, these dedicated men and women have limited access to the everyday comforts of being
“back home.” Here’s your chance to make a difference! Show America’s Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and
Marines how much you personally appreciate their service and sacrifice.
The Subscriptions for Soldiers program allows
you to show your support for our troops by donating a magazine subscription to our deserving overseas active duty servicemen
and women. We have gathered thousands of requests for magazine subscriptions from our soldiers and now we need your help!
Hopefully in 2008...
Our POWs will no longer wait...
Until They're All Home
Then I'll Leave It Alone
"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy,"
[Colossians
2: 8]
National Alliance of Families
For the Return of America’s Missing Servicemen
World
War II – Korea – Cold War – Vietnam – Gulf Wars
April 19, 2008
Bits N Pieces
"I told them when we'd go up to the Pentagon,
whether he walks off a plane or is carried off,
you're
not going to leave him in Iraq like you did those guys in Vietnam."
Keith Maupin as quoted by the Associated
Press March 31, 2007
#################
Services for Sgt. Matt Maupin - The remains of Sgt. Matt
Maupin will arrive at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati Ohio, on Saturday April 26th. A procession will escort Sgt.
Maupin to the Union Township Civic Center located at 4350 Aicholtz Road, Cincinnati Ohio. Public visitation will begin
at 11:00 AM and end at 7:00 AM Sunday April 27th.
A memorial service beginning at 1:00 PM will be
held at the Great American Ball Park located at 201 E. Pete Rose Way, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202. A private burial
service, at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, will follow the memorial service.
To check for any changed to this
schedule visit http://www.visitclermontohio.com/mattmemorial.html
Our hearts and prayers are with the Maupin family. Those wishing to extend their sympathy
may send condolences to:
Carolyn
and Keith Maupin & Family
c/o The Yellow Ribbon Support Center
700 S Eastgate Blvd. – Suite 430
Cincinnati
Ohio 45245
####################
What Happened to Matt Maupin - On Thursday April 17th, Pentagon officials briefed the
family of Sgt Matt Maupin. In an article for The Enquirer posted at Cincinnati.com Malia Rulon, writes;
“Keith
Maupin said that Pentagon officials told them Thursday that they would have to get a final report from the Armed Forces Medical
Examiner on exactly how and when their son died. “I was given the impression that they believe it was very early on,"
Maupin said. He said Pentagon officials told them that the June 2004 video released on an Arab television station
showing a person in a U.S. military uniform being shot to death "might well have been Matt, but we don't know for sure."
“The Army Medical Examiner's Office in Maryland has had Sgt. Maupin's remains for more than two weeks. They have
been doing forensic tests to determine when and how he was killed. Keith Maupin said they have been told that "because
of all the time that's gone by and the harsh conditions over there, there wasn't a lot of Matt left for them to examine."
The Maupins will get the report when it's finished.”
In the same article Rulon reported; “Two of
the Iraqis identified as being responsible for kidnapping and killing Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin four years ago have been sentenced
to death - though not for Maupin's death, Army officials told the soldier's parents Thursday.
The
article also stated that Keith Maupin stated the Army paid a $200,000 reward for the tip that led to his son’s recovery.
However “The Army did not comment on the reward.”
#################
A Very Impressive 268 –
That is the current number of co-sponsors for H.Res 111. Unfortunately, we are still stuck in the Rules Committee.
Please DO NOT give up. Keep the pressure on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rules Committee Chairperson Louise
McIntosh-Slaughter. Send a fax to:
Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Tel: 202-225-0100 or Toll Free at 866-727-4894
Office of the Speaker
Fax: 202-225-8259
H-232, US Capitol
202-225-4188
Washington, DC 20515
And don’t forget Rules Committee Chairperson
Honorable
Louise McIntosh-Slaughter
2469 Rayburn Bldg
Tel: 202-225-3615 or Toll Free at 866-727-4894
Washington D.C. 20515
Fax: 202-225-7822
Remind them that that H.Res 111 enjoys overwhelming bi-partisan support. With 268
Co-Sponsors passage of H.Res 111 is clearly the will of the people.
Not sure if your Congressional
Representative is a cosponsor, visit www.nationalalliance.org/legis/110congress.htm If your Representative is highlighted in red, he/she is a cosponsor. And,
remember if your Congressional Representative is not a cosponsor, keep working on them!
######################
Status
of PWs in South Vietnam – We recently located an interesting memo. Both the recipient and sender are redacted.
However, the content of the memo, dated November 13, 1969 is basically un-redacted. We found this memo interesting
because it acknowledges the possibility that POW camps abandoned in South Vietnam may have been re-activated.
Unfortunately, as the memo indicates abandoned facilities were not “carried as detention facilities.”
This
concept of re-activating a once abandoned camp is one possibility DPMO refused to consider in the case of Army Captain John
T. McDonnell (Vessey 119 Discrepency Case, Project X and one of the 19 New POWs.) According to the memo;
“The
MACV Joint Prisoner Recovery Center investigates on the ground all credible reports of detention sites in South Vietnam.
In some cases evidence of hastily evacuated prison cages have been found and in one case a fatally wounded American soldier
was recovered. These sites investigated on the ground by JPRC are usually left in an unusable state and are not afterwards
carried as detention facilities. In some cases the sites may in fact have been re-used, but this is problematical.
There are also reported sites in Cambodia and Laos. There is little point in attempting to summarize this information,
since interrogation of released and escaped prisoner indicates that the VC move the captives from camp to camp as the tactical
situation demands.”
The memo also discussed a no bomb area assigned to “one detention facility –
a cave in Laos.” We can only assume that strong intelligence reporting indicated this cave was a detention
facility for American POWs in Laos in 1969.
To view the full document, visit the Vietnam section of our website
at www.nationalalliance.org#####################
Government Acknowledges Mis-Identification of World War II Airman - “The
POW/MIA bunch (Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC) gave it all their spin - and boy, can they spin it. They're better
than Bill O'Reilly." Those are the words of Mary Roberts, sister of World War II airman Wesley Stuart.
In
the March 15th edition of Bits we reported how one World War II family exhumed and tested remains returned to them in the
late 1940’s after the Bent Prop Project, a private group researching World War II aircraft losses, located Stuart’s
aircraft with remains inside. This information was provided to the U.S. government but no action was forthcoming.
So,
Mary Roberts took matters into her own hands, exhuming and paying for private mt-DNA testing. The test confirmed the
families long held suspicions that the remains were not those of Wesley Stuart.
On April 17th the Recorder published
a follow up to this story, written by Michael Fitzgerald. Excerpts from his story follow:
[Begin Story]
"They wanted me to go away. Trust me," said Roberts, a Stockton bar owner. "But
I didn't. They don't know Irish people.
Irish people are persistent."
“This latest twist in the story of Wesley Stuart involves an admiral's apology,
an honor guard and Stuart's hope that, far away on a tiny coral island in the Pacific, recently discovered remains may really
be those of her beloved brother.”
“On Sept. 13, 1944, Wesley Raymond Stuart, a lanky, 6-foot-1, blue-eyed,
fun-loving cowboy, who rode bucking broncos in Oakdale rodeos, who played guitar and sang, flew off the deck of the carrier
U.S.S Enterprise, bound for the island of Peleliu. Stuart, 20, a turret gunner in a three-man Avenger light bomber,
never returned.”
“Civilian searchers with the Bent Prop Project found his plane's wreckage in 2005.
They conjecture Stuart's Avenger, crossing over the island's shore, took a direct hit from intense Japanese anti-aircraft
fire. Its bomb and gas tank exploded.”
“Four long years passed, and the war was over, when the Navy
notified the family Stuart's remains - skeletal fragments - had been recovered. To the Stuarts, the delay in identifying
Wesley's remains, and the thin evidence on which identification was based, raised doubts. Stuart's mother disbelieved.”
"How
she knew that, I don't know," Roberts confessed. "Mother's intuition. Something." But the family interred the
remains. "My mother took good care of him. She said, 'It's not my son. But it's someone's son.'"
“Roberts
grew up with the doubt. Long after her parents died, when forensic DNA technology evolved, she asked the Navy to test the
remains. The Navy refused.
"The POW/MIA bunch (Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC) gave it all their spin
- and boy, can they spin it. They're better than Bill O'Reilly," Roberts said.”
“When Stuart's plane
was found in 2005, human remains were found beneath the fuselage. "I thought, 'I have to find out. I have to know,'”
Roberts recalled. So she hired an attorney to handle the legalities of disinterment and sent remains from the mausoleum
to a lab in Pennsylvania along with a sample of her DNA.”
“The specialist called her personally.
"I didn't want your attorney to call you and tell you," she told Roberts. "The DNA didn't match." Roberts said she notified
the Navy, which changed its tune. "No more spin. They came down to earth. ... Let me tell you, it really shook them up."
“An
official from JPAC promised a letter of apology, signed by an admiral, Roberts said. The Navy is sending an honor guard and
"high-ranking official" to Park View Cemetery for a formal disinterment ceremony on April 23.”
“The
unknown soldier will be transported to Honolulu , where experts will try to match the remains to the military's database of
MIAs.”
“Roberts wonders if the remains beneath the fuselage are her brother's. She hopes JPAC will
investigate. But there's another possibility: Could the Navy have mixed up the other two crewmen, sending Wesley's remains
to the family of the airman who long rested in French Camp?” [End Story]
###############
Question –
Ms. Roberts had to hire an attorney, pay for exhumation, and mt-DNA testing at her personal expense ($11,000) to proved remains
returned as her brother where not his, shouldn’t the government repay her expenses?
Why does Johnie Webb
still have his job?
###################
National Alliance of Families 19th Annual Forum is scheduled for June
19th – 21st, 2008. Our forum is conducted to coincide with the Government s annual Vietnam POW/MIA Family Briefings.
We urge all family members to attend this year’s government briefing. The government will provide free airfare to two
family members to attend the government briefings. There is no charge or registration fee to attend these briefings and you
DO NOT have to belong to an organization to attend the government briefings.
This year our meeting will be held
at the Holiday Inn National Airport, located at 2650 Jefferson Davis Highway Crystal City, VA. The special Alliance
rate is $129.00 per night, plus tax. Parking rate under the Alliance is $10.00 per night. Cutoff
date for reservations is May 20th so make your reservations early. There will be no extension on this date.
To reserve your room, call 1-703-684-7200.
The Alliance is an all volunteer organization. Our meetings are open to all,
without charge. At this time of year, we actively seek contributions to finance our forum. If you wish to contribute, donations
may be mailed to:
National Alliance of Families
P.O. Box 40327
Bellevue, WA . 98015
Remember all contributions
are tax deductible.
3472
Please take a moment to visit The VFW Veterans Memorial Wall.
The VFW Veterans Memorial Wall is meant to be a lasting tribute to all of the proud men and women who have served our country
and live on in our memories.
If you have another loved one that you would like to add to The VFW Veterans Memorial Wall, there's still time! Add your hero's name today so the thousands of visitors to our site each year will see their name proudly displayed.
We want to ensure that not one single veteran is ever forgotten.
They helped make this the greatest country in the world. And we have a duty to make sure that their dedication to this
country is remembered long after they are gone.
Add your loved one's name to The VFW Veterans Memorial Wall today.
 Ladies and Gentlemen,
Here is some valuable information.
Jeff White
President
PA State Council
Vietnam Veterans of America
610-356-8524 (H)
IRS Updates, March 2008
The Exempt Organizations Division of the Internal Revenue
Service
was busy in February. It posted information on governance and
related topics for 501(c)(3) organizations; announced that
registration
is open for one-day workshops for small and mid-sized
501(c)(3) organizations;
released Form 990-N; posted a database
of Form 990-N information; and released fact sheets on the complaint,
examination,
and compliance processes. Read on for details.
Governance and Related Topics for 501(c)(3) Organizations
Want to know what the IRS considers best practices in governance for
501(c)(3) organizations?
Check out new information posted on the IRS Web
site.
Workshops for Small and Mid-sized 501(c)(3) Organizations
The Exempt Organizations Division will be back on the road in April
and May with its one-day workshops
for small and mid-sized 501(c)(3)
organizations:
* April 1, 2, and 3, 2008-Alexandria, Virginia (Washington,
D.C.,
metro area)
* May 6, 7, and 8, 2008-Austin, Texas
* May 20, 21, and 22, 2008-Columbus, Ohio
The workshops will look at the benefits and responsibilities of
tax-exempt status; actions that
can jeopardize an organization's exempt
status; unrelated business income; employment issues; Form 990,
including Form
990-N; and required disclosures, including those imposed
by the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Pre-registration is required.
E-Postcard Filing for Smaller Nonprofits
If your organization is required to file a Form 990-N, you can now
find it on-line at the Web
site of the Urban Institute, the IRS's
partner for this project. Organizations with gross receipts of $25,000
or less
(except for churches and their auxiliaries and organizations
included in a group return) are generally required to file
the Form
990-N, which is also known as the e-Postcard.
Filing in 2008 is required for tax years that ended on or after
December 31, 2007. The form is
due each year by the 15th day of the 5th
month after the end of an organization's tax year and must be submitted
electronically.
No extensions will be granted.
Although there will be no financial penalties for late filing, the
consequences for failing to
file at all will be dire: beginning May 15,
2010, any organization required to file a Form 990-N, 990, 990-EZ, or
990-PF
that has not done so for three consecutive years will
automatically lose its tax-exempt status.
In order to file a Form 990-N, the following information about your
organization is needed: Employer
Identification Number (EIN); tax year;
legal name and mailing address; other names used; name and address of
the principal
officer; Web site URL, if your organization has one;
confirmation that gross receipts are generally $25,000 or less; and,
if
applicable, a statement that your organization has gone out of business
or is in the process of doing so.
The IRS is asking everyone to spread the word about Form 990-N. As
Lois G. Lerner, director of
the Exempt Organizations Division, noted,
"People do a lot to help their communities by volunteering their time
and
money to local charities. We're asking them to also offer a helping
hand by making sure that charities know about the law
change."
Fact Sheets on Complaint, Examination, and Compliance Processes
Two new fact sheets have been made available by the Exempt
Organizations Division. The first is
an explanation of the process
undertaken by the IRS when it receives a complaint about a nonprofit
organization, from
initial analysis of the situation to the decision on
whether to pursue an examination or not. The second outlines the
differences
between examinations that are used to determine tax
liability and compliance checks that determine if an organization is
following
regulations in regards to record keeping, reporting, and other
activities.
Top List
Blue Angels Release 2008 Show Schedule
Story Number: NNS071212-10
Release Date: 12/12/2007
12:10:00 PM
From Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (Blue Angels) Public Affairs
PENSACOLA, Fla. (NNS) -- The Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, The Blue Angels, has announced its show schedule for the
2008 season.
Following winter training, the team begins the season at Naval Air Facility El Centro, Calif., March
8 and will conclude the season Nov. 16 at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. The Blue Angels are scheduled to perform 68 shows
at 35 locations throughout the United States and Canada.
"We are extremely excited to begin our new season and represent
the Navy and Marine Corps team with a safe and exciting show for 2008," said Cmdr. Kevin Mannix, the squadron's commanding
officer.
Demonstration sites are selected in support of U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and Department of Defense objectives
with safety as a primary consideration. Performances greatly assist in the recruiting and retention goals of the military
services, enhance esprit de corps among uniformed men and women, and demonstrate the professional skills and capabilities
of the Naval Services to the American public and U.S. Allies.
The Blue Angels schedule is:
March 8: NAF El Centro,
Calif.
March 15-16: Sacramento, Calif.
March 29-30: NAS Meridian, Miss.
April 5-6: NAS Kingsville, Texas
April
12-13: Smyrna, Tenn.
April 19-20: Peoria, Ill.
April 26-27: Vidalia, Ga.
May 3-4: Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
May
10-11: Barksdale AFB, Bossier City, La.
May 16-18: Andrews AFB, Md.
May 21: USNA, Annapolis, Md.
May 23: USNA Fly-By,
Annapolis, Md.
May 24-25: Jones Beach, N.Y.
June 7-8: MCAS Cherry Point, N.C.
June 14-15: Quebec City
June
21-22: Davenport, Iowa
June 28-29: Huntsville, Ala.
July 5-6: Traverse City, Mich.
July 11: Pensacola Beach,
Fla.
July 19-20: Duluth, Minn.
July 26-27: Twin Falls, Idaho
Aug. 2-3: Seattle, Wash.
Aug. 8-10: Fairchild
AFB, Spokane, Wash.
Aug. 16-17: Chicago, Ill.
Aug. 30: Cleveland, Ohio
Sept. 1: Cleveland, Ohio
Sept. 6-7:
NAS Brunswick, Maine
Sept. 13-14 Eau Claire, Wis.
Sept. 20-21 NAS Oceana, Va.
Sept. 27-28 Grand Junction, Colo.
Oct.
4-5: MCAS Miramar, San Diego, Calif.
Oct. 11-12 San Francisco, Calif.
Oct. 18-19 Little Rock, AFB, Ark.
Oct. 25-26
NAS Jacksonville, Fla.
Nov. 1-2: Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas
Nov. 8-9: Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Nov. 15:
NAS Pensacola, Fla.
For more news from the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (Blue Angels), visit www.navy.mil/local/blueangels/.
HIGHLIGHTS
WWII Database Now Available:
DPMO researchers have completed the first electronic
listing of Missing Personnel from the Second World War, which is now available on the DPMO website . Click HERE to see the database. Developed from two historical sources created by different agencies, as well as thousands
of individual casualty files, the list will serve as the foundation for building detailed information on each WWII-era serviceman
whose remains were not recovered. Work on expanding the list to include information such as aircraft or ship involved in each
loss is already underway, and plans for further analytical enhancements are in development.
The Torch
Newsletter is Back:
The Torch publication
has been off the shelves for a while, but now it's back with a new image and focus. This quarterly publication will inform
readers about what the accounting and personnel recovery communities are doing to account for service members missing from
past wars, and how we prepare today's service members to avoid and survive captivity. Click here to read the latest edition.
Links to Military Services:
If you would like to visit the Army, Navy, Air Force or
Marine Corps POW/MIA websites, click on the icons below.
ARMY |
NAVY |
AIR FORCE |
MARINE CORPS |
To snag our banner and display it on your website, right click on it, save it under whatever name you'd
prefer in the format as a .gif to a file on your pc where you can relocate it. Merely upload it to your website and
link to: http://powmiaawareness.tripod.com and you're set to go. WE APPRECIATE IT!
| This is our FUND RAISER |
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| PROCEEDS GO TO ASSIST THE POW/MIA FAMILIES |
The POW/MIA Holy Bear is being sold by this website as a fund raiser. Proceeds will go to assist the
families of current POW/MIA families. Each POW/MIA Holy Bear costs $10.00. A gift box is also available for an extra $1.00 each. The gift box keeps
your bear looking clean and new and proudly displays your Honorable Bear and your SUPPORT FOR OUR PRISONERS OF WAR AND MISSING
IN ACTION! Checks and Money Orders only please.
We wish to give a SPECIAL THANKS to Rob LeClair and Holy Bears for making this
opportunity available to us! www.HolyBears.com
We also have some items on Vista Print which can be located by CLICKING HERE One is a new National POW/MIA Awareness Assn. T Shirt. I sure am looking forward to getting mine
and my husband feels the same about getting his!
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