Bill Text: IL SR0690 | 2019-2020 | 101st General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Supports all efforts to locate and return MIAs from Illinois. Urges the United States Military organizations to abide by the Department of Defense's rules and policies when DPAA JFI-JFR teams excavate potential grave sites, so as not to compromise or jeopardize the sites. Urges the Department of Defense DPAA to remove those currently listed as Dead-XX and give these American service personnel the same privilege and opportunity to be reclassified onto the Master Excavation Listing (MEL) country by country.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2021-01-13 - Session Sine Die [SR0690 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2019-SR0690-Introduced.html

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SENATE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Today, there are an estimated 21.7 million
veterans living in the United States, the oldest having served
in World War II; and
WHEREAS, From Illinois, there are approximately 3,000 to
4,000 veterans from World War II, 300-400 veterans from the
Korean War, and 65 veterans from the Vietnam War; and
WHEREAS, Since the United States was founded, over 80
million Americans have served in the United States Military;
and
WHEREAS, Many soldiers never returned home and may still be
classified as Prisoners of War (POWs), Missing in Action (MIA)
or died while in captivity (POW-MIA-BNR-DCC-XX); and
WHEREAS, Currently, over 80,000 American service personnel
are still considered MIA; and
WHEREAS, Many of the wartime missing in action, who need to
be recovered and returned, remain entombed within the borders
of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, North Korea, China, and Russia; and
WHEREAS, The Defense Intelligence Agency established the

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Stony Beach program in 1986 in an effort to help resolve these
cases; the Stony Beach mission is to achieve the fullest
possible accounting of unaccounted-for Americans from the
Vietnam War; it is the only U.S. government entity focused
solely on Vietnam War POW/MIA accounting; and
WHEREAS, The United States and the DIA-Stony Beach ground
teams need to continue to pursue any leads that could result in
the arrest of former wartime criminals; and
WHEREAS, The wartime interrogation teams need to be
captured and brought to justice, as there is no statute of
limitations for war crimes; and
WHEREAS, The former Select U.S. Sub-committee on POW-MIA
Affairs was allowed to dissolve without notification and needs
to be reestablished; and
WHEREAS, The U.S. Senate POW-MIA committee discovered that
a 1,000-page report was generated, detailing the many
challenges and efforts to bring MIAs home; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we support all efforts
to locate and return those missing in action from Illinois,
including the reestablishment of previous committees; and be it

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further
RESOLVED, That we urge all U.S. Military organizations to
abide by the Department of Defense rules and policies when DPAA
JFI-JFR teams are locked into excavating a potential grave
site, so as not to compromise or jeopardize the site; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That we urge the U.S. Department of Defense DPAA
to remove those currently listed as Dead-XX and give these
American service personnel the same privilege and opportunity
of being reclassified onto the Master Excavation Listing (MEL)
country by country.