Steve Golding is one of the Founders of Operation Just Cause. To know Steve is to realize his interest and leaning towards the political side of the POW/MIA issue. Steve is a business executive and his dedicated to the POW/MIA issue knows no bounds. He is the fire and the fury behind OJC. He ignites and fuels a desire to work to bring all POW/MIA(s) back home in everyone that he meets.

The Moonduster Chronicles is proud to introduce you to Steve Golding.

Steve has his Bachelors degree in Business Administration from St. John's University in New York, Marketing major and Finance minor. He holds a bachelors degree in Science. (dual major).

Steve's college was interrupted for a year because he suffered a severe spinal injury, breaking 16 vertebrae's in an auto accident. He was told he would never walk again but after extensive therapy and sheer will Steve began walking with canes after 8 months and then without any assistance after 3 years. While in the hospital he was allowed to complete his courses and earn his degrees.

For the last 10 years the 10th largest Commercial Real Estate Corporation in the world has employed Steve. For 8 of those 10 years he was the Assistant Comptroller (or Asst. Controller) of a 2.5 million square foot office tower. For fans of the show "Law and Order," it is the building that the producers superimpose the name "Law and Order" on for use of that show. For the last 2 years, Steve has been the Comptroller (or Controller) of a 1.1 million square foot International Industry building that during the year draws buyers from all over the world. In prior jobs, he was the Exec. Asst. to the Chairman of the Board at Trans World Airlines and if you ever used your American Express Card to purchase airline tickets, then your baggage was covered for loss and/or damage by the American Express Card Baggage Insurance Plan; a plan that Steve devised, wrote, implemented and administered on behalf of American Express.

In an email interview Steve answered the following questions:

Moonduster:  How did you get involved with the POW/MIA issue?

Steve: I became involved in the issue because my stepbrother was shot down in Vietnam. We were told that he was shot down over water, but then it was learned that he might have been captured. He talked with a POW who came home in 1973. His name is on the Special Remains List as well as the Russian 41 List. My step-brother had his backseater's remains came home in 1989 AND his backseater still remains his backseater--the backseater's name is directly under his name on the Wall in DC.

I am very involved and very committed to the National Alliance of Family for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen and I have compiled a huge amount of information over the course of my 27 years active in this issue. Of those 27 years, 18 of them I have been very vocal and totally immersed in the issue.

I also am the Webmaster for the National Alliance of Families for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen and the Executive Director of the PoW/MIA Forum. I am the former producer of POW/MIA Freedom Radio and I am about to launch the Task Force Omega Website. I am on a newsgroup periodically with Jimi Kauffman whereby we take on former Deputy Director of DIA's (Defense Intelligence Agency) Colonel Joseph Schlatter and current DPMO supervisor Robert Destatte. That newsgroup is alt.war.vietnam

I met Ted Guy in about 1985 or 1986, because the POW that had spoken with my stepbrother was one of the POWs that Ted had attempted to bring charges against and he wanted to get Ted's read. We became fast friends and have worked together throughout those years up until his death April 23, 1999.

Moonduster: How did you get involved with founding OJC?

Steve: It was during the Site Fights in 1996. I entered the PoW/MIA Forum into the Site Fights and one of the sites that I came up against was the Meadow Years (Gunny Fallon's page). I went to view the competition and I struck up a conversation with Gunny. Soon we were voting for each other's pages! Meadow's won and the Forum came in second. It was during these competitions that I told Ted Guy to go ahead and view Gunny's pages. The three of us started e-mailing one another and then Doc Gecko joined our little clique. We started phone talking about the awareness issue, because Gunny and I started getting a lot of e-mail asking for information or how people could help. We came up with, actually I think it was Gunny who came up with, the idea of adopting POWs. We each created a web page and placed a POW bracelet as the link.

In subsequent telephone conversations with Gunny, we were aiming to reach 100 people by the end of the year. We had that many by the end of the first week!  Originally, it was called simply "The Cause" because it was a righteous cause. It was just. I then started calling it OPERATION: Just Cause and the name took. I know that it is the name of the operation that handled either Grenada or Panama, but it is not unusual to recycle operational names. If honest accounting for our un-repatriated POWs and the rest of the remains that can be accounted for isn't a just cause, then I don't know what is. Hence OJC. Gunny cites statistics that are 7 figures, and I can tell you that we have an OJC e-mail mailing list of what is fast approaching 9,000.

Moonduster: What did you see as the purpose for OJC in the beginning?

Steve: I saw it as a vehicle to raise public awareness over the POW/MIA issue. As a way to let the masses know that our government working in collusion with past enemy governments willfully and wantonly abandoned Americans when political interest waned in prosecuting the wars. I saw it and continue to see it as an action vehicle to let our elected representatives know that this is an issue that is important to the American people---and to the world.

Lobbyists and polls are now running our government. If the administration, any administration, does something in a tentative way to test to see if there will be an outcry and there isn't one, then they take steps necessary to achieve their goals. In this instance, if they see that they can drop the POW from POW/MIA and there is no outcry, then they will move to drop the issue altogether. That is the reason why JTF-FA (Joint Task Force-Full Accounting) is slated to loose all funding by 2004.

To illustrate that further, in order to test to see if there would be an outcry over normalizing relations with Vietnam, the Clinton Administration lifted US objections to IMF (International Monetary Funds) loans to Vietnam. There was no outcry except from some family organizations and some VSO's (Veteran Service Organizations). Next, the administration relaxed the Trade Embargo imposed against Vietnam by the United States. Directly thereafter the administration lifted the US imposed trade embargo. Both times they cited the lack of public outcry. We then normalized relations, re-opening the US Embassy and establishing a Vietnamese Embassy to the US. Again, the lack of public outcry was cited. This was all accomplished over a 2-1/2 year period--lightning fast for Washington. John Kerry and John McCain pushed Clinton into normalizing our relations with Vietnam. When Clinton voiced concern over the POW/MIA family members and activists, McCain told Clinton not to worry about the families or the activists because there were “only a hundred or so” of the activists involved in the issue and therefore insignificant. 

Polls are taken around the country by randomly calling 100 people in a regional tri-state area and those 100 people each represent a percentage of the population. Since they didn't burp one way or another toward any of the above, the administration felt comfortable re-abandoning our family members yet again. During the week in June that the families were meeting in Washington, Normal Trade Relation talks opened up in Washington. Normal Trade Relations is what took the place of Most Favored Nation status.

I can tell you that, in part due to the demographics of our membership, more and more people are becoming aware of the USG dirty tricks department that have played games on the families, veterans and the American people--and Washington is aware of it. NTR will probably become a reality in US-Vietnamese relations, but not nearly as quick as all the other little goodies that the US has given over the last few years.

That is what I believe OJC can help to accomplish: that the USG will have to rethink their own position on the abandonment of Americans.

Moonduster: What plans do you have now for OJC?

Steve: Well that's a loaded question. I am very political and I am very abrupt. My patience is at a loss and therefore what I would like to see is OJC take a more proactive-activist role. I'd like to see the membership help Roger Hall in his quest to force the CIA to be in compliance with the law and release the 40,000 plus documents on the POW/MIA issue that they have classified. I'd like to see the membership donate to Roger Hall to help offset litigation expense. The USG is employing all sorts of resource to tie him up in costly litigation in the hopes that his funds will dry up forcing him to withdraw. But the agreement that Gunny, Ted, Doc and I came up with is that we will not solicit nor accept funding. I don't particularly look at Roger Hall's suit as us soliciting funds for OJC, but I guess that is open to interpretation. I know that Ted and Gunny supports Hall's lawsuit. I'm sure that Doc does too. But because of our charter, we have to be careful and I understand that.

On other fronts, I would like to see each OJC member become so versed in the POW/MIA issue that when they get the kiss off letters from their representatives or from DPMO's (Department of Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office), they know enough to write back and tell these folks that they did not answer their question; that they gave lip service--and then be able to point out why and how. OJC member James Laux has been excellent at responding. Family member Chris Rich has grown enough where he now tells them they are bull-bleeping him.

I'd also like to see each member bring in another two members to OJC. And they bring in two members, and so on and so forth. If we grow into a rather large proactive community, the USG will have no choice but to start dealing honestly, or at least change the spin to appear more honest. A good liar will stick closely to the truth, so we have to be able to read in between the lines.

Moonduster: What is your involvement with OJC now and if your involvement was different in the past, what was that?

Steve: I was support in the past and I would step in when Gunny had to step back for a variety of reasons. I have been doing the updates now for the last few months and when I do not do them entirely, I collaborate with Gunny on them. Sometimes, I proof the newsletter for accuracy and any minor errors that may have been made. Barb Malone once threatened me with giving me a full time job! I give guidance and I am on the OJC Crisis Response Management Team where we who are on that team respond to the various hot news items that come in droves on the issue at certain periods of time. I research family member cases, 4 of which I am working on at the present, and at least 3 of the 4 can go hot very quickly.

I work with Congressional staffers on legislation, elections and lobbying efforts. I am the liaison between the National Alliance of Families and Operation Just Cause. I am Gunny's #2--if he cannot make it to an event, I will and vice-versa; or more times than not we make it together. I will step-in and take the reigns of OJC whenever Gunny is unable to do so for whatever reason. And when I am unable to, we both rely on Dennis. Let's not forget that when Dennis, Gunny and I were all in DC it was Barb Malone who took the reigns. This is nothing if not a total team effort.

Moonduster: Any memories you want to share about OJC, the friends you have made and what it has meant to you?

Steve: Oh Lord, I don't know where to begin! I am like a proud parent that has seen OJC evolve into this huge giant that is about to help make things right in this unpopular issue. OJC is a giant whose membership cannot be explained away as fringe, lunatic, UFO seekers, and emotional and unstable family members.

There is a memory that I would like to share. OJC sometimes receives e-mail that is considered flame. I am the resident hot head of the bunch and I believe in an eye for a tooth. I usually take on whatever attack is being made and I do whatever necessary to put it down expeditiously and decisively. Gunny has hammered at me for the last 300 years trying to get me to be more diplomatic. Gunny is the one that always responses with reason and tact. Ted and I would be more apt to tell someone why it is their parents left them by the side of the road .

Well in this particular case, Gunny used his considerable charm and tact to try and win this person over. The reply he got was another flame. Gunny responded again but this time with a little less charm and tact; he was firm but well reasoned.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Ted and I were betting which e-mail Gunny would finally blow up at. You have to have somewhat of a sick sense of humor in this issue so that it won't overwhelm you. We'd go, "Uh Oh, this is it," or "Don your Kevlar, INCOMING!" We were really having a good old time.

Anyway, after the 4th or 5th e-mail, my pal Gunny morphed into the absolute best Steve Golding anyone ever saw. The Language was beautiful, although nothing that could be printed here!! He told this guy every reason, from inbreeding to test-tube experiments, why this guy wasn't worth the effort.

Ted and I could hardly contain ourselves and we shot Gunny e-mails, copying the entire executive board, asking Gunny for identification, if he went off his meds, and asked some rather personal questions to explain the reason why our resident diplomat had lost his cool. It was the funniest thing and I look upon that memory with fondness.

The friends I have made here are countless and more than friends--they are extended family--the list is endless. Chris Rich is not someone I met here, but someone I brought here. I've watched him grow up; he's my little brother. Betsy Fallon she's my sister in every sense of the word. And I don't even have to mention Gunny. There was never a question. Ted I also knew, probably longer than anyone else at OJC and he certainly was family. He and I are very much alike in our styles, our impatience and our propensity to shoot from the lip, and our warped sense of humor. God, how I miss Ted!

And it was Gunny, and therefore OJC, that reconciled prolific activist Jimi Kauffman and I after we had ceased communicating with one another over an issue-related incident. Jimi is one of my closest confidantes and she is indeed my family. Had it not been for Gunny, I don't know that the relationship would have evolved the way it did. I certainly owe him a like-type favor.

Moonduster: What you would like to say to the OJC staff and volunteers?

Steve: Thank you does not seem to cut it. Our organization thrives not because of anything that I or Gunny or Doc or even Ted did. It is because our membership cares and because our staff really does give meaning to stepping up to the plate.  This is not the easiest or most popular issue to immerse your self in. It costs and sometimes it costs dearly; financially, emotionally and psychologically. But because we are so dedicated and because our volunteers are so deeply committed, we can make and are making a difference. How could one not be proud of that? How does one say thank you for that?

I would also say that while we have much to be proud of, there is much more to do. Stay the course and stay focused; I do believe that with Ted Guy at his next duty station as our liaison with the Lord, the light at the end of the tunnel may just rear its head!

Moonduster: What do you see happening with OJC in the year 2000?

Steve: This is another loaded question. Steve Golding sees OJC getting involved in national politics and making the POW/MIA issue a presidential issue; we just have to figure out how far are we willing to go.

I see us demanding more specific answers and forcing those who answer us to have to think about their answers, rather than signing their name to a form letter. I see us developing a FOIA team (Freedom of Information Act) where we have people present various cases for us to FOIA information from the USG on.

I'd like to see OJC reunions going on around the country and I am going to try and push for as many OJC members as possible to attend the family meetings in 2000.

Action teams should be started so that when something dire comes down the pike, like the push on the Bring Them Home Alive Act, that there is a team in place that will follow up our membership to make sure that they have contacted their representatives to sign on to that and upcoming legislation. I see the action teams being versed in the particular bills that we are pushing so that our membership can have an intelligent grasp on the bills. In this way, when they are talking with staffers, they won't be dazzled by the DC 2 step.

I believe several OJC members can pull off a unification of individual POWs who came home but who are not speaking to one another, much less on the issue. I believe that we could apply gentle pressure and see a unified front come out of dissention.

I'd like to see an expansion of our very successful yellow ribbon campaign.

More than anything else, though, I'd like to see them all home.

After all, they belong Walking On or Planted In American Soil, nothing less!

Steve Golding is affiliated with:

National Alliance of Families

-and-

PoW/MIA Forum