Continuing the Fight for a Full Accounting Family of Air Force Colonel Pushes for Return of all POW/MIAs

Continuing the Fight for a Full Accounting
Family of Air Force Colonel Pushes for Return of all POW/MIAs

January-February 1997 Issue
U.S. Veteran Dispatch

The vigil has ended. The guest speakers have returned home. And simple black and white flags across the states and at military bases around the world are now folded neatly again and put away for another year.

Yet, the families of those for whom Sept. 20 was named can't simply store the topic on a shelf until next year. Many people whose loved ones are among the more than 90,000 people listed as prisoners of war or missing in action from past conflicts have no choice but to live with a gaping hole in their lives every day - a void that can't be filled until their family members are returned home, according to Jack & Wilma Laeufer.

The Laeufers, cousins to Col. Owen "Pete" Skinner, who became missing in Laos on Dec. 12, 1970, were the guest speakers at Mildenhall's POW/MIA breakfast Sept. 20, 1996.

Although the cousins donned bracelets etched with Skinner's name soon after they were notified his aircraft had gone down during the Vietnam War, they didn't really get into the fight for his return until after Operation Homecoming in 1973.

"We believed at the homecoming all our guys were coming back, including Pete," Jack said. "Until he didn't get off that plane, we thought he was on his way home and we'd be able to take off our bracelets."

When Skinner didn't return, things changed drastically for the Laeufers.

"When he didn't get off that plane in '73, we said 'something is wrong here,'" Jack said. It was then that the husband and wife team, along with hundreds of other people across America, began to devote their lives to securing the return of their nation's missing. While Jack still held down his full time job at a chemical plant in their hometown of Lima, Ohio, the couple set about making and selling POW/MIA bracelets in their home.

"When we first started selling bracelets and really got involved in the issue, I was going around saying 'our cousin's missing, please wear a bracelet of our cousin,'" Jack said.
But, that focus on Skinner soon shifted.

"We went down to a meeting in Columbus with other families and I asked for some Skinner bracelets," he said.
"A mother stood up and said, 'my son's still missing too.' That was like a sledge hammer hitting me. From then on our efforts were for Pete and for all of them," Jack said.
"When you first start working for the return of your relative, your relative soon represents them all," Wilma added. "And anyone who can't genuinely say that soon drops out (of the effort).
"We would be so happy to find out any of the families had their relative returned to them," she said. The Laeufers said when the focus of their fight shifted to all of the POW/MIAs, not just one in particular, "it was like a big wave had smoothed out and it became easier."

Although many of America's brothers in arms never returned from World War I, World War II and the Korean War, it was the efforts of those who had loved ones missing from Vietnam that kick started the fight for a full accounting from every war.

"The effort was started by a family in California who said they didn't want the same thing to happen to their loved ones that happened to the ones from Korea," Jack said.

The struggle to return America's missing grew from there. Today there are numerous national and regional POW/MIA organizations around the country. Jack and Wilma founded the Lima Area POW/MIA Organization in 1984. With only the two as members, the non-profit organization has donated more than $130,000 to 36 other non-profit organizations, most devoted to the return of America's missing.

When not busy at home running their POW/MIA mail order business, the couple spend their time marching in Washington, D.C. and visiting the Vietnam Memorial Wall there; or attending numerous other activities around the country dedicated to the issue.

Not all families choose to support the drive for a full accounting in the same way as the Laeufers. "Wives, daughters, uncles . . . they don't all react the same," Wilma said. "Some are more vocal, some aren't. Some stay at home and have a very hard time dealing with it in their homes and that's all they can do.
"And, there are families that are very outspoken which I think have kept the issue alive for all of the other families," she said.
"We speak out all the time," Jack said, "but Pete's wife went to a few meetings and it was too much for her. She said it was like a roller coaster with too many ups and downs.
"Once you're able to level yourself out, it helps you deal with it."
Since the Laeufer's missing loved one is a cousin - not a father or son - there are people who question the Laeufer's dedication to the return effort.
"People ask us why we're putting our lives into this," the Ohio retiree said. "I tell them someone has to care . . . someone has to try.
"It's a constant struggle with a lot of frustration," he said, "and I asked Wilma once if it were our son that was missing, would we be doing the same thing we're doing now, or would we be one of those families who just went into a shell, thinking what's the use?"
His wife couldn't answer the question.

"We may never account for all these men," Jack said. "But everyone is going to know there are people that are going to be after them if they don't account for our men and women out there fighting for freedom.

"The past may be going by the way side and we may be looking to the future, but the next time (the United States is involved in a major conflict), hopefully we won't get into a struggle like this where we don't know where our guys are," he said.

Soon after 1973's homecoming in which Skinner didn't return, Jack asked his cousin's wife, Pat, why they hadn't gotten involved earlier.
Pat's reply was simple.
"God didn't want you in there when it was easy," she told him, "He wanted you in there when it was going to be a tough fight."

Twenty-six years after becoming involved in the issue, the Laeufers are still in the thick of battle - fighting for the return of America's heros. But, they're also looking to the future. "In military circles, it's important to know there's still a need for accounting . . . to make military people realize if they become POWs or are missing in the next war, the fight will continue until they're accounted for."
"We shouldn't let our men and women fall through the cracks," Wilma added. "It's not right."

This article was written by Public Affairs Staff Sgt. Debbie Aragon It was originally printed in the Marauder, the military newsletter for the Royal Air Force (RAF) at Mildenhall, England, a U.S. military base. The RAF established a memorial in 1993 strictly for Vietnam POW/MIAs at Mildenhall Hall. Travel expenses for the Laeufers were paid half by them personally and half by the RAF.

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