Klobuchar Presents MN Vet's Widow With Purple Heart: Photos

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar joined others at a medals presentation ceremony this week to honor the late World War II veteran and Minnesota native Staff Sergeant Gerald Jacobsen. At the ceremony, Klobuchar presented Jacobsen’s widow Catherine Tauer with the Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals that Jacobsen earned during WWII.

For over 70 years, Tauer and the Jacobsen family did not know what became of their loved one. Following Klobuchar’s work with the Defense Department on the family’s behalf, Jacobsen’s grave in France was exhumed and his remains were positively identified earlier this month.

The Jacobsen family first reached out for assistance in 2008. In 2015 the family provided the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) — the agency tasked with identifying unknown fallen soldiers— with significant evidence showing where Jacobsen was likely buried in France. After over a year of waiting for action, the Jacobsens contacted Klobuchar’s office and the Senator took steps to expedite the exhumation of the grave and the DNA testing process required to positively identify the remains as Jacobsen.

Last year, Klobuchar’s office worked with the DPAA to identify another unknown Minnesota soldier lost in WWII, Wilmar native John Anderson. The Anderson family spent seven years working with the DPAA before the agency identified Anderson’s remains, according to a news release.

Klobuchar wrote to Defense Secretary James Mattis today, urging him to take steps to ensure that the DPAA has the resources it needs to carry out its important mission. Klobuchar is also pushing to install a capable, permanent director to effectively steer the agency. Since its creation, the DPAA has not had a permanent director. Last year, the agency identified 164 service members – 36 fewer than mandated by law.

The Pentagon estimates that more than 83,000 service members are still missing from the conflicts in the Persian Gulf, the Cold War, Vietnam, Korea, and World War II.

Full text of Klobuchar’s letter to Defense Secretary Mattis is available below:

I write to urge you to ensure that the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has the leadership necessary to carry out its mission to identify unknown fallen servicemembers and provide efficient and responsive service to their families.

In 2013, the Government and Accountability Office (GAO) found that “DOD’s capability and capacity to accomplish its missing persons accounting mission is being undermined by longstanding leadership weaknesses and a fragmented organizational structure.” Constituents from my state and my office staff recently experienced inefficiencies at the DPAA firsthand.

During World War II, a young Minnesotan named Gerald Jacobsen was killed shortly after D-Day. He was 27-years-old and his family has been looking for his remains ever since. My office began working with Staff Sergeant Jacobsen’s widow in November 2016 to press the DPAA to exhume remains they suspected to be his and test the DNA. The process was repeatedly delayed and the Jacobsen family and my office frequently went months without receiving a response to inquiries.

I am pleased that after years of trying, in June of this year the Jacobsen family received news that Staff Sergeant Jacobsen’s remains had been identified and he can finally be laid to rest at home in Minnesota. While I am grateful to the Defense Department for the work on the case, the process took too long and the DPAA failed to provide the Jacobsen family with the service and communication they deserve.

The Pentagon estimates that more than 83,000 servicemembers are missing from past conflicts in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War, and the Persian Gulf. Despite Congress providing $115 million in funding for the DPAA to carry out its mission to ensure that our unidentified fallen military members are identified and reunited with their families, just 164 servicemembers were identified in 2016 — 36 fewer than required by Congress.

We owe it to these brave men and women and their families to ensure that their remains are identified as quickly as possible. The DPAA is currently being managed by an interim agency director. Given the importance of DPAA’s mission, I respectfully request that you prioritize installing a strong and capable permanent director to manage the agency.

A new director should represent only the first step in a broader plan for agency reform. Specifically, I request that within 60 days under the new director’s leadership, the agency should conduct a review and issue a public report detailing the causes for the agency’s shortcomings and proposed solutions.

There is strong support in both houses of Congress to see reform in this critical agency. I look forward to working with you to ensure the DPAA is better able to give our servicemembers’ families the closure they deserve.

Thank you for your consideration of this important matter.

Photos via Office of U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar