The Hawaii Teamsters & Allied Workers Union Local 996 is collecting new, unwrapped toys through Nov. 21 for the 2007 U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys For Tots Campaign on O'ahu.

"We are proud to join the Marines Corps Reserve in the 60th year of their campaign to deliver the joy of Christmas and a message of hope to youngsters in our community," Teamsters President Ron Kozuma said in a news release.

Toys For Tots is seeking toys that are suitable for infants and children up to age 16. Teamster members and the public may drop off toy donations to the Hawaii Teamsters at 1817 Hart St., one block mauka of Nimitz Highway between Kalihi and Mokauea streets. Donations will be accepted Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Since its inception in 1947, the program has distributed more than 370 million toys to more than 173 million children. Annual campaigns are conducted in more than 500 communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Teamsters and members from various car clubs on O'ahu will form a caravan to take the toys collected by the union to a Toys For Tots rally at Magic Island on Nov. 25. The caravan will then deliver the toys to the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve at a special collection site set up at Paki Park in Waikiki.

APPRECIATION DAY SET FOR VETERANS

The Oahu Veterans Center is holding its first Veterans' Appreciation Day on Nov. 17, from noon until 4 p.m. The center, at 1298 Kukila St., is in Foster Village just off Salt Lake Boulevard and near Radford High School.

This event will recognize and honor veterans for their service, with emphasis on those who have recently returned from the combat areas.

The center aims to make this event an annual tradition as well as a fundraiser to assist in implementing programs that help ease transition for veterans returning from deployment and re-entering the community.

Tickets for the event are $20 each. Children under 12 are $5. For more information, call 422-4000 or e-mail sballard@oahuveteranscenter.com.

REMAINS OF 5 U.S. TROOPS IDENTIFIED

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced last week that the remains of five U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been accounted for and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

The servicemen include: Lt. j.g. Norman L. Roggow, of Aurelia, Iowa; Lt. j.g. Donald F. Wolfe, of Hardin, Mont.; Lt. j.g. Andrew G. Zissu, of Bronx, N.Y.; Chief Petty Officer Roland R. Pineau, of Berkley, Mich.; and Petty Officer 3rd Class Raul A. Guerra, of Los Angeles, all U.S. Navy.

Pineau was buried earlier this month in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. The dates and locations of the funerals for the other servicemen are being set by their families.

On Oct. 8, 1967, Zissu and Roggow were the pilots of an E-1B Tracer en route from Chu Lai Air Base, Vietnam, back to the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany. Also on board were Wolfe, Pineau and Guerra. Radar contact with the aircraft was lost about 10 miles northwest of Da Nang. Adverse weather hampered immediate search efforts, but three days later, a search helicopter spotted the wreckage of the aircraft on the face of a steep mountain in Da Nang Province. The location, terrain and hostile forces in the area precluded a ground recovery.

In 1993 and 1994, human remains were repatriated to the United States by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam with information that linked the remains to unassociated losses in the same geographical area as this incident. Between 1993 and 2004, U.S and Vietnamese teams, all led by the Hawai'i-based Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, investigated the incident more than 15 times in Da Nang city and Thua Thien-Hue Province.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from Hawai'i's JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA and dental comparisons in the identification of the remains.

For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703-699-1169.