WASHINGTON, July 25 (UPI) -- Several groups representing veterans and families of missing U.S. service members criticized the Defense Department, saying it isn't doing enough.
The groups, which include the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans and Vietnam Veterans of America, accused the department of undercutting a joint U.S.-Russian program to uncover the fate of Americans who disappeared during hostile military action, The Washington Post reported.
"After nine months of broken promises, we cannot sit quietly and allow senior officials in the Department of Defense to redirect funding, transfer researchers and linguists and jeopardize any possibility of mission success for the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs," the coalition said in an editorial released this month.
The issue was addressed last week at the National League of POW/MIA Families meeting in Washington.
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Defense Department officials attending the meeting failed to satisfy concerns raised by veterans groups, said Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which signed the editorial.
"Other than to say the overall accounting mission will continue to do the most with what it has, their responses did not answer our questions or shed any new light into the direction [the Defense Department] may be taking," Davis said.
The Defense Department said it has not cut any funding in its search for missing war veterans.
Air Force Maj. Carie Parker, a spokeswoman for the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, said the Pentagon is working with the National Security Council "to ensure that the department provides the appropriate support to the commission."
"The mission continues," Parker said.
The number of service members or civilians missing and unaccounted for include 78,000 from World War II, 8,000 from Korea, 1,680 from Vietnam and one each from Iraq and Afghanistan.
