Korean War Veterans Association

     On Wednesday, February 24th, a group representing the KWVA met with retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Linnington, the current Director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and members of his staff to establish a line of open communication between the KWVA and the DPAA and to express our appreciation to them for their efforts to recover and identify the remains of our servicemen who are still unaccounted for some 60+ years after the Armistice was signed. Representing the KWVA at the meeting were President Larry Kinard, Secretary Lew Ewing, Executive Director Jim Fisher, KWFA POW/MIA Coordinator Bruce Harder, Korean War Memorial Foundation Vice-Chair Rick Dean and the KWVA Communications Director Fred Lash.

     The DPAA was formed in 2015 when three former agencies, JPAL, SPMO and LSEL were combined creating the DPAA. The DPAA consists of over 600 personnel from a variety of backgrounds and specialties working throughout the world. Their mission is to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and to the nation. Their vision is for their world-class workforce to fulfill our nation's obligation by maximizing the number of missing personnel accounted for while ensuring timely, accurate information is provided to our families through monthly meetings with family members at various locations throughout the Unites States.

     The KWVA leadership team is very pleased that we have established this new relationship with the DPAA and we feel that it will keep us better informed of the progress the DPAA is making in their efforts to recover the remains of all of our men left behind in Korea. We realize that the DPAA's job is nearly insurmountable since the majority of our missing men are located in North Korea and their Dictator, Kim Jung Un, is, to say the least, very uncooperative at this time and has refused to let our search teams enter North Korea for some time.