Remains of 6 American MIAs Repatriated

An US soldier carries a wooden box containing the remains of an American serviceman killed in Vietnam, during a repatriation ceremony in January 2006 at Hanoi airport DaNang_064.jpg
Vietnam Wednesday returned remains of six American servicemen missing in action during the Vietnam War to the US authorities.
The remains were recovered from five sites in central Vietnam by the joint Vietnamese-US teams during the 86th Joint Field Activity, which concluded recently.

They were transferred to the US Detachment Two of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) by the Vietnam Office for Seeking Missing Persons (VNOSMP) at a ceremony in Da Nang airport.

US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Marine attended the ceremony.

The remains will be sent to the JPAC Central Identification Laboratory for analysis.

This is the 101st post-war repatriation from Vietnam.

Since 1975, Vietnamese-US teams have found and identified remains of 849 American soldiers in Southeast Asia, including 608 in Vietnam, Vietnam News Agency says.

The US has appreciated the Vietnamese government's cooperation and assistance in operations to seek remains of MIAs.

New mission

JPAC has launched this week a new mission to search for missing soldiers and aircrews lost during the Vietnam War.

Two recovery teams, one investigation team, and one research /investigation team deployed Monday to Vietnam for the 45 day mission.

Two of the recovery teams are excavating sites associated with air losses.

The third team plans to excavate two sites associated with a ground loss.

The investigation team will seek information on over 28 cases in over 12 different provinces.

The combined research and investigation team will investigate 10 cases across Vietnam, to include the examination of several potential burial sites of missing Americans.

The role of the investigation teams is to pinpoint likely locations of missing.

Source: VNA, JPAC