James Wold Papers at UND offer an opportunity to help find POWs, MIAs

Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald By Delaney Otto Today at 7:00 AM Listen Comments Share Share this article News Reporting News Reporting Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. The Trust Project What is this? GRAND FORKS — The University of North Dakota Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections in the Chester Fritz Library usually limits the time it spends helping outside researchers with their requests. However, a request made by Tours of Duty, a nonprofit organization focused on assisting families with further investigation of cases of missing servicemen and civilians, was special. ADVERTISEMENT “Generally, we limit outside researchers to like an hour of our time, just because we have so many requests and so many other things to do,” said Curt Hanson, the library's head of Special Collections. “But in this case, I wanted to go above and beyond just because it seemed like there was a potential impact for doing so.” Tours of Duty reached out to the department about the Gen. James Wold Papers, a series of documents from Wold, who served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW/MIA affairs and director of the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office between 1994 and 1997. Wold’s work included finding American POWs and MIAs, primarily from the Vietnam War. He had been deployed to south Vietnam in 1969 and flew 241 combat missions in an A-1H attack bomber. He retired from the Air Force in 1977 at Grand Forks Air Force Base and graduated from the UND School of Law in 1981. The collection of papers includes documents from his service as well as photos of Wold. Wold’s wife, JoAnne, donated the papers to the Department of Special Collections in 2007. UND digitized more than 6,400 pages from the papers for Tours of Duty. Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald Mike Luehring, senior mission attache at Tours of Duty, has, within the last few years, been involved in efforts trying to learn from information and notes people made when trying to find missing Americans in Southeast Asia. The James Wold Papers represented an opportunity for Luehring, who has a background in research and archiving, to look at information from someone who had worked in the government with direct involvement at the time looking for missing Americans. ADVERTISEMENT “That whole opportunity to see that information was valuable to us to expand our understanding and also move a lot of information into our databases,” he said. “There’s probably not one particular benefit that us having seen the information had. It was multiple things that we felt were valuable about it.” Hanson doesn’t know if any of the material given to Tours of Duty will lead to the recovery of remains, but he hopes it will. Digitizing some of the James Wold Papers felt different than helping people find their ancestors through genealogy books or helping a student find materials for a class presentation. “This is weightier,” he said. “The potential of this is much heavier, in that it could lead to the discovery of remains that have been overlooked, and then closure for the family.” Two students — Bella Hammer and Trevor Taylor — were part of the digitization project. Hanson said it was Luehring’s idea to bring in Angie Carpenter, UND’s director of veteran and military affairs, and possibly some of her students to help scan the materials. Both Hammer and Taylor have military experience. Hammer is in the North Dakota Air National Guard under the Logistics Readiness Squadron in Material Management, and Taylor is a veteran, having served as a combat medic in the 4th Infantry Division. Being part of the project was rewarding, Hammer said, especially coming from her perspective as a student studying social work. “It just felt like doing something for such a bigger picture,” she said. “No one should be, or is, forgotten.” ADVERTISEMENT Taylor saw in the documents he scanned that Wold had correspondence with Vietnamese military officials in the 1990s, not long after being enemies. “That’s pretty powerful, and I thought that was interesting,” Taylor said. “It was an honor to be able to do that, to play our part.” Luehring said he has nothing but gratitude and respect for everyone involved and "how they chipped in on their time to make it all happen." Hanson said he does not, as of now, envision the digitized pages being made available on the UND Scholarly Commons. Rosemary Pleva Flynn, associate dean of libraries and information resources, said the documents aren’t classified, but there is a large amount of personal information. Sometimes information like that in the papers can be disturbing for families. “Given the nature of the documents, it would be better for people to come in house to use them rather than just randomly find things online,” she said. Comments Share Share this article News Reporting News Reporting Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. The Trust Project What is this? Tags Tags UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA GRAND FORKS VETERANS MILITARY By Delaney Otto Otto is the University of North Dakota reporter for the Grand Forks Herald. 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