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Wallner files (GulfLink/Gulf War): James Wilbourne Name: James Wilbourne
Other Personnel in Incident: (unknown) Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project (919/527-8079) 19 March 1991 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, published sources, interviews. Copyright Homecoming II Project 1991. REMARKS: OPERATION DESERT STORM SYNOPSIS: During the early weeks of the Middle East war, each time a Coalition serviceman was shot down or captured, extensive media coverage followed. The public and POW/MIA families alike had the information they wanted at the touch of a dial. When Coalition POWs began being showed on Iraqi television, the world suffered with their familes as they haltingly gave coerced "peace" statements. This propaganda effort on the part of the Iraqis actually had a positive effect in the United States. Families at least knew their missing loved one was alive, and could assess their mental and physical condition from propaganda interviews. Then the "information gap" began. The Pentagon announced that it would no longer release any information other than name, rank, age and branch of service of missing or captured personnel. This step was taken, they said, to protect the well-being of prisoners and to avoid jepeordizing search and rescue efforts for the missing. Pentagon briefings and television reports listed the loss of aircraft and statistics, and the human element of the war was gone. Even long after search and rescue efforts would cease, no information was released on missing personnel. Intelligence reports indicating "missing" people were captured were largely ignored. In the 6 weeks following the televised propaganda interviews by Coalition POWs, only one Coalition serviceman was declared POW - and even then, no information was released about him. The name of Marine Capt. James Wilbourn, age 29, appeared on Pentagon missing lists in early March 1991. There has been no other information released by media or government sources about him. In early March 1991, 21 American POWs were released by the Iraqis, but James Wilbourn was not among them. No further word of his fate has been released. Then in mid-March, Wilbourn was declared dead. It was not announced whether the declaration was based on the return of remains or circumstantial. Several thousand families whose loved ones remain missing in Vietnam, Korea, and World War II are very concerned about the "information gap" regarding the missing and prisoners in the Middle East war. They remember being told to "keep quiet" for the sake of their loved ones. They know that it was only when they became actively vocal that world pressure stopped the torture and ill treatment of their men. They know that nameless, faceless men are easily left behind at the end of hostilities. They are afraid that another generation of prisoners and missing, unknown to the American public, will be abandoned to the enemy. 
Top tags: missing, information, released, war, coalition, james, loss, march, age, captured
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