Rick Downes
Downes is the president & executive director of the Coalition of Families of Korean & Cold War POW/MIAs. The Coalition promotes the fullest possible accounting for American servicemen who remain missing in action from the Korean and Cold Wars. He has spent three decades collaborating with Congressional offices, the Department of Defense, non-governmental organizations, and family members of the missing men to further the recovery mission. He has traveled to North Korea to negotiate for the return of remains of U.S. servicemen and joined then Vice President Pence in the Honorable Carry ceremony welcoming home remains returned by the DPRK following the Singapore Summit. Downes’s father, Lt. Hal Downes, Jr. (USAF), was declared missing-in-action during an air mission over North Korea in 1952.