Ann Mills-Griffiths

Ann Mills-Griffiths serves as Chairman of the bi-annually elected Board of Directors of the National League of POW/MIA Families and retains CEO responsibilities. She served over 30 years as Executive Director and CEO of the nonprofit, 501(c)3 humanitarian organization in Washington, DC. Having stepped aside from administering the League’s national office on August 1, 2011, she currently focuses primarily on policy, operations, and sustaining the League’s financial ability to achieve accounting objectives.  At the request of the Secretary of Defense, she also serves on the Advisory Committee of the Defense Department’s Vietnam War Commemoration and is a member of DAR, VFW and American Legion Auxiliaries, a Life Member of the DAV Auxiliary and an Honorary Life Member of the Special Operations Association and the Special Forces Association.

Since 1970, the League has fought for the return of all POWs, the fullest possible accounting for the MIAs, and the recovery and identification of the remains of those who died serving our nation during the Vietnam War.  From 1980 through 1992, Ms. Mills-Griffiths represented the families’ views as a founding member of the POW/MIA Interagency Group (IAG), the US Government’s senior-level policy development mechanism for achieving accounting results in the context  of developing bilateral relations with Vietnam and restoring normal bilateral relations with Laos and Cambodia.  She was instrumental in setting up high level negotiations between Vietnam and the United States in 1982-83. Since then, she has continued to represent the POW/MIA families and America’s missing personnel through direct contacts with US and foreign leaders.

Ms. Mills-Griffiths has met frequently with senior officials in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, as well as with Thai, Russian, Chinese and other diplomats and senior officials in an effort to expedite answers. As a recognized leader on POW/MIA issues and recipient of numerous honors, she also has appeared frequently before congressional committees and sub- committees, national and international broadcast media, participated for decades in policy forums dealing with Southeast Asia, and been called upon for advice and counsel by foreign nations facing their own personnel accounting issues.

Commander James B. Mills, USNR, Ms. Mills-Griffiths’ brother, was listed as MIA on September 21, 1966, when the Navy F4B on which he served as Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) disappeared on a night, low-flying bombing mission over North Vietnam.  He was on his second tour, assigned to Fighter Squadron 21, USS Coral Sea.