Army Faux Pas - Sadly Unique!

[HARDCORE]

From what information that I have managed to glean, it has come to light that the United States Army may have been unique to all of our military branches when it came to how they treated American ex-Prisoners of War?

I was recently informed that, contrary to the actions of our other services, the U.S. Army may not have stood behind its Prisoners of War quite as well as the Navy, Marines, Air Force or Coast Guard? ?The facts and data on this are still coming in, however, and I will keep you apprised as they do!?

It would appear that the Army removed its personnel from the ?Combat End of Its Pay Rolls? after 90 days of captivity? The other services, on the other hand, maintained the integrity of the combat pay status for its imprisoned personnel, no matter how long it took to repatriate them! ?If this is indeed a fact (?), then there is something terribly wrong here!?

As I said above, more information (evidence) on this pathetic, Army oversight is expected soon, but if true (and things sure point in that direction, as several ex-POWs have attested to), that would mean that captured military personnel in other services were treated a whole lot better after attaining freedom than in the Army!

Granted, from what I was told, Army Combat Pay back during the Korean War was but $45 or so a month. But even at that, we are talking about over $1600 extra here in many cases, and that was a tidy little sum back in the early 1950s! As a matter of fact, that same $1600 could buy you a new car back then, a nice down payment on a modest little home, and it could fill up the old icebox for many years to come!

The saddest thing of all, however, is that (if true) there was no uniformity in the policy of the military services concerning the status of American Prisoners of War! ?How could the Prisoners of War of one service be considered more deserving than another??

And granted again, the Army POWs from Korea did eventually receive (I am told) ?Loss Leave Pay of about $300?, but because they were removed from combat status after 90 days in enemy captivity, they lost their $45.00 (or so) monthly in combat pay! And according to Tom Lyke, himself an ex-POW from Korea: ?After the death of a Congressman who had expressed an interest in this issue some years back, no legislation was ever introduced concerning this lost combat pay for POWs??

Also for the record, I am informed that Tom Lyke has already contacted Senator John McCain, as well as Congressmen John Murtah and Sam Johnson, and is currently awaiting their response. I also understand that even the ex-POWs who filed for this lost combat pay in a timely fashion, were sent back letters of denial, and this is not right or just in my opinion!

Again, this amounts to but $1600 or so for most Korean War ex-POWs, especially the Tiger Survivors who averaged about 37 or more months in brutal enemy captivity! And I fully realize that in today?s finances, this is not a vast fortune. It is, however a debt of honor, and one does not ignore (especially for over a half century) such a responsibility!

?And what were you all doing back in the early 50s?? Were you penned up behind bars and barbed-wire like cattle? Were you forgotten as you rotted away in some stinking Prisoner of War Camp - starving, diseased, cold, sick, beaten, tortured, and uncared for - virtually forgotten by the entire world? These gallant POWs were, and they have patiently waited for well over 50 years to be paid this money that they earned with their blood, sweat and tears!

Is this not a ?Debt of Honor? - and how could anyone think otherwise? Our nation does not, or at least should not, deal in double standards between the various services!!

And for the record - "Of those men, who languished as POWs within the captured Tiger Group of the Korean War, some 59% died horribly in captivity!"

?We must never forget!!?

VERITAS (Truth)