- Title: Sixty-five years later, relatives of Korean War MIAs still want answers
- Date: 6th June 2018
- Summary: MANDRA HOLDING A PHOTO OF HER BROTHER, POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPH POW-MIA SIGN IN WINDOW OF MANDRA'S HOME
- Embargoed: 20th June 2018 18:05
- Keywords: Korean War MIA missing in action U.S. Marines Donald Trump North Korea summit DPRK Kim Jong-un
- Location: SOUTH FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS
- City: SOUTH FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00H8J65ETJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Irene Mandra has spent more than 65 years seeking answers as to the fate of her brother, Marine Sgt. Philip Mandra, who disappeared while taking part in a combat operation in North Korea in 1952.
Philip, born in 1931, enlisted in the U.S. Marines in 1950 and was sent to Korea in 1952 where he distinguished himself for his combat service, earning a Silver Star and a two Purple Hearts.
Mandra said the upcoming summit on June 12 between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offers a window for families of MIA soldiers. Mandra said she hopes the MIA issue will discussed or at the least that a thawing of tensions might lead to renewed effort to identify remains, but she concedes that North Korea's nuclear program will be the focus of the talks.
"I can only hope and pray that President Trump will bring the subject up. I don't know whether he will or not," said Mandra.
Mandra said she was very close to her brother, who was three years older than her. Mandra said Philip was a "kind, gentle, loving" brother and said they were very close growing up, even double-dating together.
"He was such a gentle giant of a man," said Mandra.
Mandra said that Philip disappeared on August 7, 1952 when he and his company stormed a hill to take out a North Korean machine gun installation. Mandra said other Marines said they saw Sgt. Mandra diving on an enemy hand grenade to protect his colleagues. His company was then ordered to retreat after coming under heavy fire and Sgt. Mandra was left behind.
Because he fell in enemy territory, his remains were never found and his fate remains a mystery. Did he perish on that hill or did he survive and was taken prisoner?
Mandra has made it her life's mission to find out what happened to her brother and to help other MIA families find answers. She founded and runs organization called Korea - Cold War Families of the Missing, which advocates for MIA families and shares information on the subject.
In 1992 the United States and Russia established the "U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs" to look into the reports that American troops may have ended up in Soviet prisons.
In that same year then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin said Soviet leaders lied for decades about U.S. prisoners of war and left open the possibility that some could still be lost in the remnants of the gulag. In a written reply to U.S. senators investigating the fate of missing Americans, Yeltsin also said that Chinese forces held some Americans prisoner from the 1950-53 Korean War, along with their North Korean allies.
In 1993, Mandra and her younger brother went to the Russia after a Russian colonel reported he had seen someone that fit Sgt. Philip Mandra's description in a prisoner of war camp in the early 1960's. Despite identifying Philip from a photograph, his identity in the Soviet prison was never conclusively proven.
Despite various reported sightings, no concrete proof has yet emerged that U.S. troops were held in Soviet prisons.
Irene Mandra said for her and for other MIA families the pain from the loss and from not knowing what happened to their loved ones stays with them forever.
"We are the ones that are longing to get news about our loved ones and it remains with us for years on end - it never goes away," said Mandra.
Philip Mandra is one of over 7,800 U.S. soldiers 'unaccounted for" during the Korean War. Of those, the remains of an estimated 5,300 soldiers are believed to buried in North Korea, according to the Pentagon's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
From 1996 to 2005 the U.S. military had a program called Joint Field Activities that operated in North Korea, investigating and recovering remains, but that process ended in 2005.
"I want to know whether he was taken prisoner and if so I would want Russia to let me have his remains back. Now that's that version. Or if he was killed on that hill in North Korea I would like very much to bring him home. I bought a plot for myself and for him that someday, if they find him, I've already told my children to please bury him with me," Mandra said.
"He loved this country so much. That's where I think he should rest is in this country." - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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