Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop beamed on the steps of Jersey City’s City Hall while announcing his City Council memebers this morning at the start of the first-ever Jersey City Veteran’s Day parade.

Fulop a former Marine who joined the Marines after 9/11 and served in Dessert Storm announced  his Council memebers and NJ State elected officials one by one and proudly decared which ones served in the United States Marines, both Ward C Councilman Richard Boggiano and Jersey City Councilman at Large Daniel Rivera are former Marines as well as current NJ State Assemblyman Raj Mukhenji , Fulop smiled and said to the crowd ” See where I am going with this folks.”

Fulop also mentioned that State Senator Sandra Cunningham who was in attendance was married to a former Marine the late Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham.

New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez  spoke about Jersey City and Hudson County’s sacrafice to defend our nation

It was with this pride and enthusiam from all participants  that surrounded today’s first ever Jersey City First-Ever Veteran’s Day Parade that made it an overwhelming success that can only grow larger with each year.

With hundred of Veteran’s and active Military service members marching some in uniform and  more folks linning the streets, you could feel the excitement  as Jersey City residents from all backgrounds and cultures held up the American flags and said “Thank You” to the many Veterans and servicemen  in the parade.

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The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Chief Warrant Officer George A. Howes, of Knox, Ind., will be buried Aug. 5 in Arlington National Cemetery. On Jan. 10, 1970, Howes and three aircrew members were returning to their base at Chu Lai, South Vietnam aboard a UH-1C Huey helicopter. Due to bad weather, their helicopter went down over Quang Nam Province, Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.). A search was initiated for the crew, but no sign of the helicopter or crew was spotted.

In 1989, the S.R.V. gave to U.S. specialists 25 boxes that reportedly contained the remains of U.S. servicemen related to this incident. Later that year, additional remains and a military identification tag from one of the other missing servicemen were obtained from a Vietnamese refugee.

Between 1993 and 1999, joint U.S./S.R.V. teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), conducted three investigations in Ho Chi Minh City and two investigations in Quang Nam-Da Nang Province (formerly Quang Nam Province). A Vietnamese citizen in Ho Chi Minh City turned over a military identification tag bearing Howes’ name and told the team he knew where the remains of as many as nine American servicemen were buried. He agreed to lead the team to the burial site. In 1994, the team excavated the site and recovered a metal box and several bags containing human remains. In 2006, the remains of three of the four men were identified and buried. No remains could be attributed to Howes given the technology of the time. In 2008, given advances in DNA technology, the remains were reanalyzed.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used dental comparisons and mitochondrial DNA – which matched that of Howes’ sister and brother-in the identification of the remains.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, call (703) 699-1169 or visit the DPMO website at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo .

Source: Military.com

Photo: United States Flag with kneeling Soldier silhouette by Bob Orsillo – Finearts.com

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At this point, there is quite a bit of speculation about the arrest and its timing, as well as the fact that Pakistan forces played a key role in the process. Some of that speculation is coming from inside the Afghan parliament. “If Pakistani officials had wanted to arrest him, they could have done it at any time,” said Sher Mohammad Akhud Zada, the former governor of Afghanistan’s Helmand province and a member of the Afghan parliament. “Why did they arrest him now?”

This speaks to one of the primary problems with the military operations in the region. Pakistani officials and military operatives are well connected to key Taliban members and often know of their whereabouts, while remaining unwilling to share that information with U.S. and NATO forces. That is why some are quick to question why such an operation was able to occur smoothly and without any real fanfare.

Some believe that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar may have agreed to be captured in an effort to broker some sort of agreement with U.S. and NATO forces. This speculation is tied to recent announcements that a major initiative was under way to attempt to bring moderate Taliban to the negotiating table. The plan offers economic and educational incentives for moderate Taliban who lay down their arms.

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