WASHINGTON, D.C. – Just over a month after the remains of a World War II Idahoan servicemember were returned to his family, U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, introduced bipartisan legislation to streamline the process to recover missing U.S. military members.
Crapo and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, on Monday announced the re-introduction of the Bring Our Heroes Home Act. The senators also introduced the bill in 2023.
“Idaho welcomed home another missing hero just a few weeks ago, and we cannot give up on our efforts to identify and bring home every remaining missing servicemember,” Crapo said in a press release. “We must cut the bureaucratic red tape that delays bringing them to an eternal resting place here at home. We owe their families and loved ones the assurances they have not been forgotten.”
In mid-October, the remains of 2nd Lt. Charles Atteberry were returned his family in Parma after being missing for 80 years, KTVB reported. Atteberry was born in Parma and joined the Army in 1937. He was reported missing in 1942 and later reported as a prisoner by Japan in the Philippines until 1944, the Idaho Statesman reported.
Atteberry was aboard a Japanese ship in January 1945 when it was attacked and sunk by U.S. forces. The Idaho native reportedly survived the attack but died a few days later at sea, the Statesman reported. His remains from a mass grave in Taiwan were identified decades later by the U.S. military using DNA testing.
What would the Bring Our Heroes Home Act do?
The legislation introduced Monday would create a collection of missing Armed Forces and civilian personnel records at the National Archives and Records Administration, require certain agencies find and send records of missing servicemember records to the archives, and create an independent Missing Armed Forces and Civilian Personnel Records Review Board.
Under most circumstances, the board would be required to publicly report its records.
The review board would comprise five members appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, according to the bill. The board would include at least one attorney and at least one professional historian.
The board would be required to submit an annual report that includes its expenditures, progress made, and suggestions or requests for Congress. The bill authorizes funding in such “sums that are necessary to carry out this Act,” but does not specify how much that would be.
The Congressional Budget Office did not do a cost estimate of the similar bill introduced in 2023.
There are nearly 81,000 Americans who remain unaccounted for from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War, the Gulf Wars and other conflicts, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Around 360 of those missing servicemembers are from Idaho, including Atteberry’s brother, Lloyd Atteberry, who has been considered missing in action since he was reportedly shot down in 1943.
Fellow U.S. Senator from Idaho Jim Risch is a co-sponsor of the bill, as well as U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla, D-California; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois; Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada; Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire; and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.
This story first appeared on Idaho Capital Sun.
