Full Text of SR0690 101st General Assembly
SR0690 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | SENATE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Today, there are an estimated 21.7 million | 3 | | veterans living in the United States, the oldest having served | 4 | | in World War II; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, From Illinois, there are approximately 3,000 to | 6 | | 4,000 veterans from World War II, 300-400 veterans from the | 7 | | Korean War, and 65 veterans from the Vietnam War; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, Since the United States was founded, over 80 | 9 | | million Americans have served in the United States Military; | 10 | | and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, Many soldiers never returned home and may still be | 12 | | classified as Prisoners of War (POWs), Missing in Action (MIA) | 13 | | or died while in captivity (POW-MIA-BNR-DCC-XX); and
| 14 | | WHEREAS, Currently, over 80,000 American service personnel | 15 | | are still considered MIA; and
| 16 | | WHEREAS, Many of the wartime missing in action, who need to | 17 | | be recovered and returned, remain entombed within the borders | 18 | | of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, North Korea, China, and Russia; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, The Defense Intelligence Agency established the |
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| 1 | | Stony Beach program in 1986 in an effort to help resolve these | 2 | | cases; the Stony Beach mission is to achieve the fullest | 3 | | possible accounting of unaccounted-for Americans from the | 4 | | Vietnam War; it is the only U.S. government entity focused | 5 | | solely on Vietnam War POW/MIA accounting; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, The United States and the DIA-Stony Beach ground | 7 | | teams need to continue to pursue any leads that could result in | 8 | | the arrest of former wartime criminals; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, The wartime interrogation teams need to be | 10 | | captured and brought to justice, as there is no statute of | 11 | | limitations for war crimes; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, The former Select U.S. Sub-committee on POW-MIA | 13 | | Affairs was allowed to dissolve without notification and needs | 14 | | to be reestablished; and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, The U.S. Senate POW-MIA committee discovered that | 16 | | a 1,000-page report was generated, detailing the many | 17 | | challenges and efforts to bring MIAs home; therefore, be it
| 18 | | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL | 19 | | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we support all efforts | 20 | | to locate and return those missing in action from Illinois, | 21 | | including the reestablishment of previous committees; and be it |
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| 1 | | further
| 2 | | RESOLVED, That we urge all U.S. Military organizations to | 3 | | abide by the Department of Defense rules and policies when DPAA | 4 | | JFI-JFR teams are locked into excavating a potential grave | 5 | | site, so as not to compromise or jeopardize the site; and be it | 6 | | further
| 7 | | RESOLVED, That we urge the U.S. Department of Defense DPAA | 8 | | to remove those currently listed as Dead-XX and give these | 9 | | American service personnel the same privilege and opportunity | 10 | | of being reclassified onto the Master Excavation Listing (MEL) | 11 | | country by country.
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