European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 12, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 stars and stripes thursday aprim2 2q07 remains of 10 Wii airmen return to photos by Adam r of the Navy assault amphibious vehicles of the 31st Marine expeditionary unit prepare to leave the Well deck of uss Juneau for their Forward deployed base Camp on Okinawa Juneau and the rest of the Essex amphibious ready group offloaded the marines at the conclusion of its Spring patrol that featured Nav Marine corps integration training and exercise foal Eagle 2007 31st Meu Back in Okinawa after s Korea deployment stars and stripes White Beach Okinawa the 31st Marine expedition Ary unit returned Here tuesday from a monthlong deploy ment to South Korea the marines and sailors of the Essex amphibious ready group made up of the uss Essex uss Tortuga and uss Juneau for War deployed to Casebo naval base Japan training in South Korea began March 6 when air and ground elements of the 31st Meu arrived for routine redeployment training after that they participated in foal Eagle 2007 an annual Bilat eral joint training exercise with South korean armed forces this exercise was enormously beneficial to the 31st said col John Mayer the command ing officer according to a Marine press release we conducted an amphibious offload in a foreign country where we moved 200 Miles Inland and set up Camp sus Taining ourselves while conduct ing the most Premier combined arms training in the Pacific re Gion As a Marine air ground task the marines and sailors also conducted a combined amphibious Landing with their South Kore an counterparts on the West coast of the korean Peninsula which helped build a stronger relation the avs leave the Juneau Well deck ending a monthlong stint in South Korea ship with Mayer said besides the training exercises service members with the 31st Meu also took part in five Community relations projects that involved visits to childrens Homes hospitals and orphanages and took Liberty in the port cities of Busan and Chunhae a City famous for its Spring Cherry Blossom festival i am glad that our marines and sailors had this Opportunity to see and experience the very Best that Korea has to Mayer said i know that these experiences have left lasting impressions and i sincerely Hope the feeling is Mutual for the korean people in terms of the Impact we made Here with our projects and stars and stripes Camp Foster Okinawa the remains of 10 airmen re ported missing since their b24 Liberator disappeared in 1944 in the South Pacific Are coming Home the department of defences personnel office announced tuesday that the re Mains uncovered at a crash site in morose province new Guinea have been identified As army air Force 2nd it Raymond a Cooley of Leary Texas 2nd it Dudley r Ives of Ingleside Texas 2nd it George e Archer of gushing 2nd it Donald f Grady of Harrisburg tech sgt Rich Ard r Sargent of North Girard tech sgt Steve Zayac of Cleveland staff sgt Joseph m King of Detroit staff sgt Thomas g Knight of Brookfield staff sgt Norman l Nell of Tarkio and staff sgt Blair w Smith of no mine a Friendship while they were deployed some personnel temporarily attached to the 31st Meu from stateside units were informed that their seven month training tour would be extended for another five months the marines were expected to return to their state Side Home bases in August but will now stay with the Okina abased unit until january the Extension is designed to allow other Marine units time to train for deployments to Iraq Marine corps commandant Gen James Conway has said he wants to change the deployment sched ule from a seven month rotation to allow marines 14 months off be tween deployments the dates and locations of funerals with full military honors for the airmen Are being set by their families their plane crashed on april As it was returning to an aerodrome at Nadzar new Guinea after bombing japanese tar gets near Hollandia the last con tact with the aircraft indicated it was altering course due to bad weather and was proceeding to the aerodrome at Saidor in late 2001 the embassy in Papua new Guinea notified the joint accounting com Mand that wreckage of a world War ii bomber had been found in morose province the aircraft wreckage and remains were found in a Survey of the site in Early 2002 an excavation of the site resulted in the recovery of identification tags of several of the missing airmen and other Crew related items the remains later were positively identified by using dental records and mitochondria Dan holocaust survivor to speak stars and stripes Camp red Cloud South Korea beginning Friday Holo Caust survivor de Lessing will speak to service members in South Korea about his experiences resisting nazi Rule and Slaugh Ter Lessing will speak to chaplains and senior leaders from 10 to 11 Friday in the Warrior room at Camp red Cloud he will speak to the general Public from noon to 1 Friday at the cd mess at Camp red Cloud he then will speak Friday at 7 during jewish services at Yon san garrisons South Post Chapel Lessing is tentatively scheduled to speak to a Christian group on sunday at Yon san Garrison followed by a speech for the Yong san equal Opportunity office at noon monday for More information Call chaplain it Avi Weiss at Dan 7236707 Lessing and his family separated and went into hiding in 1942 to avoid nazi concentration Camps according to his biography Lessing posed As a Christian farmhand until joining an armed resistance group in 1943 his Mother was captured and sent to the Bergen Belsen concentration Camp following the War Lessing and his family reunited and moved to the United states blessings visit conies As yom has Hoah or holocaust remembrance Day is observed sunday More than jewish peo ple were massacred under nazi Rule along with millions of others from different ethnic religious and political backgrounds Good deed of the Day Limmy and stripes capt Matt Radik left and boy scouts Jacob Tripp Center and Devin Turner from Seoul based troop 87 apply powdered Glass to a freshly painted fire hydrant near the dragon Hill Lodge at Yon san Garrison South Korea on saturday the group was one of several that set out to paint More than a dozen fire hydrants on Yon san Garrison to help a Friend Complete an Eagle scout project