The letters were dated after his believed death and talked about imprisonment. Behrens still works with an Army casualty officer to try to account for her brother. It is now believed he may have died while being transferred through the Vietnamese prison system, and the Army has identified a small area of land where his remains might be located. The problem for years in retrieving remains from Vietnam has been an uncooperative Vietnamese government. Behrens used to belong to Iowa Cares, a support and action group for Iowa families of POWs and MIAs which has since disbanded.
Some people are like that now, they just want to bring it to some kind of closure.
Standley said the recognition day is not meant to be a memorial service but for remembrance. There still may be some families out there that hope. The point is not to dwell, but more just to remember, but realize that for a lot of families this is still very real for them. Other former participants of Iowa Cares were parents of a POW or MIA, Behrens said, who have since died or are limited by health problems. D.C. The league works to obtain the release of all prisoners, to get the fullest possible accounting for the missing and to recover all recoverable remains of those who died serving the United States during the Vietnam War.