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We've added a new page to the VietNowFreeport.org website. Information for the 2015 VietNow National Convention.

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2015 VietNow National Convention

#vietnow #convention #freeport il #Pheasant run

Event Details Saturday, September 27, 2014 VFW Post 2801

Villa Park, IL

FREE ADMISSION!

FOOD, ENTERTAINMENT,

VETERANS GROUPS,

BENEFIT RESOURCES AND MORE

THROUGHOUT THE DAY!

Join us on September 27, 2014 from 9 AM to 9 PM for the 5th Annual Veterans Benefit Fair at VFW Post 2801 in Villa Park. This event can only be described as a one-of-a-kind event to benefit Veterans. In just the last few years, there have been many changes to Veteran benefits and we are convinced that few, if any, Veterans are aware of these benefits and services that they have earned and so richly deserve.

Our objective for this event is three fold:

We want to ensure that all Veterans know about and can use the benefits that they have EARNED.

We want to say THANK YOU to ALL Veterans regardless of when or where they served.

We want to CELEBRATE with them on what we believe is a most special day.

The Benefits Event will feature:

Hines VA Mobil Service Van

DuPage/Oak Park Vet Center

Benefit Resources

Many other Veteran oriented services and programs

Universities to educate Veterans on their benefits. Also, the universities will provide information on their academic programs.

College of DuPag

and more to come!

Veterans Assistance Commission of DuPage

Dignity Memorial

VITAS

Easter Seals Community One Source

Veterans Service Officers from Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs

Entertainment

Patt Holt Singers

Bobby Dunne

and more to come!

Food vendors

And more!

This event is brought to you by Welcome Home All Veterans. For more information, call 630.474.4037.

Everyone is invited to attend. Come show your appreciation and support for our Veterans and military.

HIRING OUR HEROES - AURORA, IL

Tuesday, September 30, 2014 10:00 AM- 1:00 PM Central Time Pipers Banquets 1295 Butterfield Trail, Aurora, Illinois 60502

HIRING FAIR

Join us Tuesday, September 30, 2014 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM for a job fair for veterans, active duty military members, guard and reserve members, and military spouses at the Pipers Banquets 1295 Butterfield Trail, Aurora, Illinois 60502.

This event will be a one-of-a-kind FREE hiring fair for both employers and job seekers.

This University of Phoenix- sponsored hiring event is being conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the Department of Labor Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (DOL VETS), the Illinois Committee of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Goodwill Industries International, The American Legion, Illinois Department of Employment Security, NBC News, and other local partners.

An employment workshop aimed at helping veterans and transitioning service members leverage military experience to achieve civilian career goals will begin at 8:30 a.m.

UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX EMPLOYMENT WORKSHOP

The University of Phoenix Employment Workshop consists of a classroom session beginning an hour and a half prior to the hiring fair. This will be followed one-on-one mentoring sessions with all pre-registered and walk-in participants to be conducted throughout the day. Mentoring sessions focus on resume building, resume writing, and interviewing techniques for all job-seeking veterans and service member participants.

Interested candidates must complete this free electronic pre-registration in order to participate. A maximum of 50 participants will be accepted for the full workshop. Once the pre-registered candidates have had their coaching sessions, the opportunity will be available for “walk-ins” to have a coaching session through the end of the fair. You can register for the workshop during the Job Seeker registration process.

DETAILS

WHEN

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

10:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Workshop: 8:30 AM

Central Time

Add to Calendar

WHERE

Pipers Banquets 1295 Butterfield Trail Aurora, Illinois 60502 USA 1-202-463-5807

Get Driving Directions

Get Map

Get Weather

PLANNER

Hiring Our Heroes

Posted: Sunday, August 10, 2014 12:00 am

Associated Press |

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Racing against time, members of a Japanese organization are combing a New York military museum's World War II records for information they hope will lead to the graves of American servicemen still listed as missing in action on Saipan.

The reason for the urgency: A developer plans to begin construction in the fall on a condominium complex near the beach where scores of Americans were killed July 7, 1944, during Japan's largest mass suicide attack of the war.

Kuentai-Japan, a nonprofit group that searches Pacific islands for Japan's war dead, found the remains of at least two American fighting men near the construction site in 2011 and 2013. It believes as many as 16 others are buried nearby.

This April, Kuentai-Japan formed a sister organization, Kuentai-USA.

"This is urgent," said Kuentai founder Usan Kurata, a 58-year-old journalist who visited the New York State Military Museum with another group leader, both from Kyoto. He said the Japanese organization believes that returning Americans' remains to their families is the right thing to do.

The Pentagon agency in charge of searching foreign battlefields for America's dead says about 20 U.S. servicemen are unaccounted for on Saipan, part of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth 1,400 miles from Japan.

Maj. Jamie Dobson, a spokeswoman for the Hawaii-based U.S. Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command, said developers must follow Saipan's stringent historic preservation laws. If a probable burial site is found to be in imminent danger, the U.S. will send a recovery team.

Kuentai said it has an agreement with the Russian developer of the condo project to excavate the property for remains, but the group is awaiting final approval from local authorities.

The researchers' visit to the U.S. comes 70 years after more than 3,000 Japanese troops launched the assault that killed or wounded more than 900 soldiers in the Army's 105th Regiment, part of the 27th Infantry Division, a former New York National Guard unit.

Many of the Americans killed in the "banzai" attack were from New York state. The museum holds many of the 27th Division's records, including enlistment cards, rosters, regimental yearbooks, photographs and other documents.

Using battlefield photos published in Life magazine in August 1944 and military maps at the National Archives in Washington, Kuentai located a mass grave containing the skeletal remains of nearly 800 Japanese troops. The bones were cremated and the ashes brought back to Japan for burial.

During its excavations, the group discovered the remains of five probable American soldiers. JPAC said two have been identified so far as MIAs from the 105th Regiment, and they were returned for burial in their home states of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

JPAC and the Defense Department's other casualty accounting agency, the Defense POW-MIA Office, are the subject of a Pentagon inspector general's investigation of potential fraud and waste.

In March, after The Associated Press reported the failings of the military's MIA accounting effort, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced a shake-up that includes combining the functions of the two entities into a new agency.

A chair would be placed on the grounds of the United States Capitol to honor American Prisoners of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA), under legislation introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch. The Massachusetts Democrat's bill aims to follow up on commemorative chairs that have been placed in prominent locations in cities and states across the country.

The chair would feature the logo of the National League of POW/MIA Families and remain unoccupied to honor their service.

In a statement Lynch said the proposal came out of a spring meeting with Joe D'Entremont, president of Rolling Thunder MA 1.

I am proud to work alongside Joe D'Entremont and my colleagues in order to pay our respects to the men and women who are Missing in Action or Prisoners of War. This chair will stand as a reminder to their families and our nation that we will never forget their heroic service and sacrifice.

The U.S. Capitol serves as a symbol of our nation's history and enduring spirit, so it is appropriate to recognize those who remain unaccounted for under its dome.

The Vietnam War POW/MIA issue concerns the fate of American servicemen who were reported as missing in action (MIA) during the Vietnam War and operations in neighboring Southeast Asian nations. Following the Paris Peace Accords of 1973, which ended the war in Vietnam, 591 American prisoners of war (POWs) were returned during Operation Homecoming.

The U.S. listed about 1,350 Americans as prisoners of war or missing in action and roughly 1,200 Americans reported killed in action and body not recovered. Many of these were airmen who were shot down over North Vietnam or Laos. POW/MIA activists played a role in pushing the U.S. government to improve its efforts in resolving the fates of the missing. Progress in doing so was slow until the mid-1980s, when relations between the U.S. and Vietnam began to improve, leading to full diplomatic relations in the mid-1990s.

National POW/MIA Recognition Day observances are held annually on the third Friday of September on military installations, ships at sea, state capitols, schools and veterans’ facilities. This observance is one of six days throughout the year that Congress has mandated the flying of the National League of Families’ POW/MIA flag.

This day is set aside to honor those who remain missing and those who suffered starvation, isolation, fear, and uncertainty, during captivity.

The Department of Defense is committed to keeping families of the missing and the public apprised of the efforts being made to account for our missing service members.

For more information on the governments accounting efforts please go to http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo

There are still 1,641 personnel listed by the Department of Defense as missing and unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War, a number that changed with release in late July of the name of Col Thomas W. Dugan, USAF, listed as MIA in Laos on December 13, 1968.

From Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office:

More than 83,000 Americans are missing from World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the 1991 Gulf War. Hundreds of Defense Department men and women — both military and civilian — work in organizations around the world as part of DoD’s personnel recovery and personnel accounting communities. They are all dedicated to the single mission of finding and bringing our missing personnel home. The mission requires expertise in archival research, intelligence collection and analysis, field investigations and recoveries, and scientific analysis.

Long-term Course of PTSD Revealed

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic and prolonged condition that appears to significantly increase mortality risk as well as risk for several chronic diseases, new research suggests.

A longitudinal study in Vietnam War veterans shows that PTSD is associated with a 2-fold increased risk for death as well as a significantly increased risk for cancer.

"The majority of war zone Vietnam veterans are reporting low levels of PTSD symptoms after the war at follow-up now," study investigator Nida Corry, PhD, associate, Abt Associates, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, told Medscape Medical News.

"However, about 20% of Vietnam War veterans are experiencing either consistently elevated PTSD symptoms or worsening symptoms, so there remains a great need to address the impact of trauma for this cohort long after the war."

The results were presented at the recently held American Psychological Association 2014 Annual Convention in Washington, DC.

Need for Mental Health Services

For the analyses, investigators collected data on 2348 participants enrolled in the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS), carried out between 1986 and 1988.

The National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal study (NVVLS) was a follow-up of the original NVVRS and assessed health outcomes of Vietnam veterans 25 years later. The average age of participants at the NVVLS assessment point was approximately 67 years.

Out of the initial NVVRS cohort, 16% of veterans who were alive during the mid to late 1980s are now deceased.

The investigators found that the most common causes of death among veterans were cancer and heart disease.

However, among male Vietnam War veterans who developed PTSD as a result of war zone stress, there was nearly a 2-fold increased mortality risk 24 years later compared with Vietnam War veterans who did not develop PTSD.

Among Vietnam War veterans who developed PTSD, cancer rates were 3 times higher compared with cancer mortality rates among veterans who did not develop PTSD (hazard ratio [HR] = 3.0).

Death rates from external causes among the same PTSD subgroup were almost 7 times higher than rates among the veterans overall (HR = 6.7).

However, Dr. Corry cautioned, because of the small number of war zone veterans who died of external causes, the confidence intervals were very wide around this HR, suggesting that the risk for mortality from external causes among Vietnam War veterans with PTSD might be considerably lower.

External causes of mortality included accidents, accidental poisoning, suicide, and homicide.

Disturbing long-term trends in the persistence of PTSD symptoms could be tracked over time, as other members of the NVVLS reported. As noted by Clare Henn-Haase, PsyD, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York City, measures of PTSD were collected both in 1988 and again in 2013.

Slightly more than 75% of Vietnam War veterans with war zone PTSD reported having a low level of PTSD symptoms at both time points.

However, 7% reported that they were highly symptomatic at both time points, and 13% reported that they had substantial increases in PTSD symptoms over time.

It used to be identified as shellshock – now it’s PTSD. What’s it like for the veterans left carrying the trauma of conflict?

Changes to the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder made in 2013 provide flexibility for new PTSD diagnoses in troops, but leave out some who would have been diagnosed with PTSD under the old standards, according to a new study published Thursday in the prestigious journal Lancet Psychiatry.

Researchers with the U.S. Army Military Operational Medicine Research Program surveyed 1,822 soldiers using checklists based on the old and new definitions of PTSD as spelled out in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM.

Roughly the same amount of soldiers screened positive for PTSD under the old DSM-4 criteria and new DSM-5 definition — 13 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

The same rang true for the 946 troops among the group who saw combat — 19 percent screened positive under DSM-4, while 18 percent did so under DSM-5.

But a significant portion of the troops who screened positive under one definition did not screen positive under the other, and vice versa.

Of the 221 soldiers who met DSM-4 criteria, 67, or 30 percent, did not meet the new criteria. And of the 216 soldiers who met DSM-5 criteria, 59, or 27 percent, did not meet the old criteria.

“The new PTSD symptom criteria do not seem to have greater clinical utility,” wrote retired Army Col. Charles Hoge and others. “Clinicians need to consider how to manage discordant outcomes, particularly for service members and veterans with PTSD who no longer meet criteria.”

In late 2012, the American Psychiatric Association Board of Trustees changed the requirements for diagnosing PTSD, redefining the disorder to allow for broader understanding of combat-related PTSD.

The group dropped a requirement that in order to receive a diagnosis, a patient must experience “fear, helplessness or horror” in reaction to a trauma or environmental stressor. Many military personnel don’t experience those reactions because they are trained to handle adverse events.

The researchers raised concerns that the differences in diagnoses may lead to a loss of access to care or disability support for troops with PTSD.

While the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments have policies upholding diagnoses made under the old criteria, “crucial questions remain” about the new definition, especially an implication that individuals who don’t screen for full-blown PTSD or those diagnosed under the old definition may be considered as having an adjustment disorder instead of an anxiety disorder, which PTSD is considered to be.

“This label carries a particularly pejorative connotation in the U.S. military, where adjustment disorder of less than six months can lead to administrative separation without benefits and chronic adjustment disorder conveys a message of weakness and failure to adapt,” Hoge wrote.

The researchers said their data raise questions about whether changing the definition actually will improve diagnosis and care for PTSD patients in the long run.

“Clinicians should recognize the subjectivity involved in developing consensus-based diagnoses, gather relevant assessment and clinical data and document which diagnostic criteria they apply,” they wrote.

In response to the Lancet Psychiatry article, psychiatrist and University of Adelaide professor Dr. Alexander McFarlane said the study shows the unintended consequences of tinkering with definitions.

Pointing out that the new definition also focuses largely on troops’ ability to voice their internal struggles and understand some of the emotions they are dealing — or refusing to deal — with, McFarlane said the new study “draws attention to the hazards the changes in diagnostic criteria will introduce in the administration of veterans benefits and access to care.”

“We think there should be a period of transition between legal use of DSM-4 and DSM-5 so the potential effects of these changes can be examined and deserving individuals are not denied their legal rights,” McFarlane wrote in a companion note in Lancet Psychiatry.

Four decades after the Vietnam War, 11% of its veterans still suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to new research suggesting that for some people it is a condition unlikely to ever go away.

The findings, presented Friday at a meeting of the American Psychological Assn., provide a rare look at the long-term course of PTSD in veterans.

The research updates a landmark study conducted in the 1980s, when researchers found that 15% of Vietnam veterans had the disorder. Despite the passage of 25 years and the increasing availability of effective treatments for PTSD, the picture remains much the same.

“People who develop PTSD, if they are going to recover, they tend to recover in the first months or years,” said Dr. Charles Marmar, a psychiatrist at New York University who worked on the original study and the follow-up. “For everybody else it is very chronic.”

Some experts not involved in the research suggested the new estimate is too high, because it relied on a standardized questionnaire to assess veterans rather than a structured clinical interview that is considered the gold standard for diagnosing the disorder.

When the researchers used the interview method to assess a subset of veterans in the study, the PTSD rate fell to 4.5%.

“How one assesses PTSD affects one’s estimate of its prevalence,” said Richard McNally, a Harvard psychologist who believes the disorder is over diagnosed.

The original research, known at the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study, included 1,632 veterans who had been deployed and 716 others who served during that era but never went to Vietnam.

, researchers estimated that 31% of Vietnam veterans had suffered from PTSD at some point in their lives, but that by the late 1980s about half no longer did.

For the new study, which was funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the authors tracked down the old research subjects.

More than 500 had died. An analysis estimated that the death rate for veterans who served in the war was roughly 17% and not statistically different than the rate for veterans who did not go to Vietnam. Death rates from cancer and heart disease — the biggest killers — did not differ either.

PTSD has long been associated with early death, so researchers were not surprised to find that among veterans who deployed to Vietnam, those who had the disorder in the 1980s were twice as likely as those without it to be dead today.

Roughly 1 in 4 had died. Their death rate from cancer was particularly elevated, possibly because those with PTSD are more likely to smoke.

Of the 1,839 veterans from the original study who were still alive, 1,450 participated in the new research.

“The majority of people, even those in high combat, successfully adjust,” to civilian life, Marmar said.

The study found that certain groups face an increased risk of developing PTSD: high-school dropouts, minorities, those who engaged in killing and those who were very young when they served.

The biggest question emerging from the study is why more veterans did not get better over the last 25 years.

The researchers did not ask veterans about their treatment histories or examine their medical records. In clinical trials of PTSD treatments, veterans tend to show less improvement than rape victims and other patients.

Patricia Resick, a psychologist and PTSD expert at Duke University, suggested that many veterans have mild cases and choose to live with the disorder rather than seek treatment.

Some haven’t come to terms with losing friends in the war. “They hold on to the idea that if I let go of my PTSD I will be dishonoring my friend,” Resick said.

Other researchers have suggested that the VA disability system works at cross purposes with treatment.

“If we pay people significant amounts of money, tax-free, for having flashbacks, nightmares and startle reactions, it makes it harder to engage them in treatment,” Marmar said.

Jamie Livingston joined the Navy in 2000 because she “wanted to be part of something bigger than myself.”

But during her seven years in uniform, she was sexually harassed and says she was subsequently raped twice, and now is fighting for disability benefits to cover the trauma stemming from her experiences — a fight that many victims of military sexual trauma suffer through, experts say.

Livingston was 19 and had just arrived at Naval Station Everett, Washington, when her direct supervisor, a chief petty officer, ordered her to perform sexual favors and “show her body” before getting the approval she needed to work on the flight deck of the carrier Abraham Lincoln.

“I didn’t report it because I didn’t want things to get worse, and I was right,” said Livingston, a former petty officer second class.

But a year later, she finally decided to report the incident as sexual harassment, and her chief was prosecuted. But in retaliation, she says she was gang-raped by the chief’s military friends.

“If I reported sexual harassment and was gang-raped,” she said, “what would happen if I reported the gang rape?”

She didn’t report it. Two years later, she says another superior officer raped her, and again she kept silent.

Livingston left the military in 2007 and is now medically retired. She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, which she says prevents her from working, but receives only partial compensation from the Veterans Affairs Department.

“It’s really hard every month just to pay bills and have anything left over,” said Livingston, who now lives in El Paso, Texas, and told her story to NPR in March 2013.

Livingston currently has a 60 percent disability rating from VA for her PTSD and a back injury sustained during active duty.

Her rating would be higher if she could attach military sexual trauma as a secondary condition to her PTSD.

PTSD may be diagnosed secondary to an experience of military sexual trauma. However, according to Veterans Benefits Administration rules, military sexual trauma is not a diagnosis, but rather an “experience.”

As such, in order to attach MST to a PTSD claim for disability benefits, a “marker” is required to meet the burden of proof — any evidence, event or circumstance indicating that the assault occurred.

But since Livingston never reported the two rapes that she says she went through, she has been unable to establish such a marker.

Greg Jacob, policy director at Service Women’s Action Network, a nonpartisan advocacy group for women in the military, said the reality is simply that VA places “a higher evidentiary burden” on military sexual trauma claims.

“What we’re seeing is VA adjudicators are denying women’s claims for sexual trauma at a greater rate than other PTSD claims,” Jacob said.

According to a report released by the American Civil Liberties Union, the acceptance rate for PTSD/MST claims were about 17 percent to 30 percent lower than for PTSD claims unrelated to MST.

“One of the issues with military sexual trauma is individuals often don’t report that they’ve experienced a stressor,” a VA official acknowledged. “So there isn’t often evidence that a stressor has occurred.”

Livingston is not yet ready to give up, though. “I’ve been appealing and I’m continuing to appeal the claim,” she said. “I want it correct so the records are correct.

Service members who describe the horrors they deal with every day and the issues they face when seeking treatment. The mission of the film is to cut through the stigma and reach out to vets and family members, letting them know it's okay to let others in.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.-- Music City is no stranger to performing arts of all types...and it's quickly becoming a place to be seen on the big screen too. A new movie in production here isn't one you would expect, but if you want a grass roots effort to grow, why not do it where others have blossomed? Blue Falcon- A Veteran's Battle With PSD is one such movie. The film features interviews with mid-state vets suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Service members who describe the horrors they deal with every day and the issues they face when seeking treatment. The mission of the film is to cut through the stigma and reach out to vets and family members, letting them know it's okay to let others in. Funding for the film is being done on a grass roots level with crowd funding through www.BlueFalconMovie.com and has raised $4,000 so far. Their goal is to raise $50,000. To top things off, an Academy Award winning actor is stepping up to lend a voice to narrate the film.

1st Lts. William D. Bernier and Bryant E. Poulsen return for burial – WWII B-24 went down in New Guinea 1944

Posted on August 3, 2014

B-24D-145-CO ”Hot Garters” Serial Number 42-41188

On April 10th, 1944, as many as 60 B-24 Liberators from the Fifth Air Force attacked enemy anti-aircraft targets and airfields on the northern coast of New Guinea. One of those heavy bombers, known as “Hot Garter,” was hit by flak and went down with its crew of 12.

1st Lts. William D. Bernier and Bryant E. Poulsen, U.S. Army Air Forces, were lost April 10, 1944, in Papua New Guinea. They were accounted for July 18, 2014, and July 16, 2014, respectively. They will be buried with full military honors.

Details Below

Pilot 1st Lt. Bryant E. Poulsen, O-743204 (MIA / KIA) UT Co-Pilot 1st Lt. Herbert V. Young, Jr., O-737927 (MIA / KIA) Clarkdale, AZ Navigator 1st Lt. Donald P. Greenman, O-671425 (MIA / POW executed April 17 1944, BR) RI Bombardier 1st Lt. William D. Bernier, O-670067 (MIA / KIA) MT Engineer T/Sgt Hugh F. Moore, 3324872 (MIA / KIA) MD Radio T/Sgt Charles L. Johnston Jr., 13156292 (MIA / KIA) PA Gunner S/Sgt John Earl Copeland, 37230355 (MIA / KIA) KS Gunner S/Sgt Donald C. Crotteau, 36292455 (MIA / POW executed April 24, 1944, BR) WI Gunner S/Sgt Charles J. Jones, 14066262 (MIA / KIA) GA Gunner S/Sgt William T. Hyler, 12150690 (MIA / POW, executed April 24, 1944, BR) New York, NY Passenger William N. Handleman, 12033724 (MIA / POW executed, BR) New York, NY Passenger Sgt Charles A. Gardner, 39844574 (MIA / KIA) CA

MIA April 10, 1944

MACR 4505

Crew History Co-pilot Herbert V. Young, Jr. was born June 6, 1920 played football at Clarkdale High School and later at Arizona State University. Had one daughter, Diana, now Diana Long of El Cerrito, CA who he never saw, since she was born after he shipped out. Assigned to the SWPA in August 15 1943, he was normally a pilot but he was assigned to fly as co-pilot with another crew on the “Hot Garters” because his plane was not flyable and they were short a pilot. He had flown 43 combat missions for approximately 300 hours prior to his loss, and earned an Air Medal posthumously.

Aircraft History Built by Consolidated at San Diego. Delivered to the U. S. Army. Ferried overseas via Hawaii to Australia.

Wartime History Assigned to the 5th Air Force, 90th Bombardment Group, 321st Bombardment Squadron. Nicknamed “Hot Garters”.

Mission History Took off from Nadzab Airfield on a bombing mission against Hansa Bay. Over the target, hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed five miles west of Nubia. Five of the crew were seen to parachute out, and landed within a radius of 300 yards of the crash site.

Recovery of Remains Postwar, the remains of two of the crew were located and their remains recovered: Handleman and Greenman.

Wreckage This bomber crashed into a bamboo forest near the village of Sepen Number 2 (pronounced ‘seven’) behind Nubia.

During November 2002, US Army CILHI representative Brian Bennett visited the crash site. During his visit, Bennett located only the tail section and reported the site as a potential MIA site for further investigation.

John Douglas adds: “There was a Patrol Report dated September 1944 that mentioned four survivors. The Japanese killed one, who was buried at Akokom.”

Justin Taylan reports: “According the locals, the survivors and the pilot were seriously wounded. The villagers offered to hide them from the Japanese, but the crew wanted to surrender to the Japanese due to their wounds. Instead the crew declined their help and began walking away, then were never seen again.”

Memorials The entire crew was officially declared dead the day of the mission. Crotteau was officially declared dead on April 24, 1944. The missing and are memorialized on the tablets of the missing at Manila American Cemetery.

After the recovery of remains of two of the crew they were transported to the Philippines and United States for permanent burial. Greenman is buried at Manila American Cemetery at plot C row 11 grave 70. Handleman is buried in a private cemetery, details unknown. Hyler is buried at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, NY at plot: N, grave 28758.

Moore has a memorial marker a Cherry Hill United Methodist Church Cemetery in Cherry Hill, NJ.

Relatives Ken Young (nephew of Herbert V. Young) “My uncle, 1st Lt. Herbert V. Young, Jr. was the co-pilot of the plane. I never knew that any wreckage of the plane had been found until I came across the Pacific Wreck Database. In my uncle’s last letter, he said that “He only needed 30 more flight hours before rotating back to Frisco.” He was trained in fighters and then put into bombers because of a shortage of bomber pilots. He said the B-24 was like flying a boxcar. He flew an A20 on a ferry flight and really liked it. In his last letter he said his plane had one bad engine (didn’t pass magneto checks) and he didn’t like the idea of taking off with a full bomb load (he had friends who had died in accidents from engine problems). This led to him flying as co-pilot with the other crew, even though he had much more experience than the newer pilot he flew with. I think at the time of the crash he had completed his remaining 30 hours, but his duty was extended. I still have a copy of the telegram that my grandfather sent to my Dad informing him that Uncle Bud was missing in action. My Dad, Herbert’s brother, died in 2003 at the age of 91. Herbert’s sister, Geraldine, is still living in Cottonwood, Arizona. She is 93.”

We've updated our website with a new page: "The Wall That Heals"

What would you do if your illness were inexplicable, not fitting into any known categories? Remember the 1976 outbreak of what eventually became known as “Legionnaires Disease” due to a previously unknown strain of bacteria causing a deadly version of pneumonia? It must be much worse for military veterans returning from overseas engagements with diseases that simply defy current medical knowledge.

A House bill that passed Wednesday will restore autonomy to a Gulf War illness board that had been stripped away by the Deparment of Veterans Affairs earlier this year.

The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses had been established as an independent board after Congress called VA's work on Gulf War illnesses "irreparably flawed" in 1997.

But over the past year, VA has replaced all but one of the board members, including the board chairman, and removed the board's charge to review the effectiveness of the VA. The department has also pushed research that looks toward stress as a cause, rather than environmental factors, of Gulf War illness.

Pulmonary function abnormalities may be a precursor to chronic respiratory disease in Iraq/Afghanistan and Gulf War veterans years after their deployment, according to a new study presented at the 2014 American Thoracic Society International Conference. "Previous studies of Gulf War and Iraq/Afghanistan veterans have found persistent respiratory symptoms decades after their deployment but have not always detected clinically significant pulmonary abnormalities," said lead author Michael Falvo, PhD, a research physiologist at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' New Jersey War Related Illness and Injury Study Center. "In our study, however, we found evidence of small airway obstruction and other pulmonary abnormalities in many deployed veterans."

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