U.S. Holds 171st Repatriation Ceremony in Vietnam
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency received possible remains of a service member during a repatriation ceremony at the Gia Lam Airfield, Vietnam, Dec. 13.
During the 171st repatriation ceremony held by the two countries, representatives from the Vietnam Office for Seeking Missing Persons handed over remains to the accounting agency thought to be associated with a U.S. Air Force F-105 crash site in Lao Cai Province.
Kelly McKeague, DPAA director, and Le Cong Tien, VNOSMP director, presided over the event, which included dignitaries from the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi and senior ministry officials from Vietnam.
McKeague thanked the Vietnamese partners for their support.
"Thank you to the government of Vietnam, whose leaders in the early 1980s exhibited a great deal of faith and compassion to assist the United States in searching for and recovering the remains of American soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen who were missing in action," McKeague said.
He noted that this assistance began 10 years after the war and 10 years before the normalization of diplomatic relations.
In a released statement on the ceremony, U.S. Embassy in Hanoi officials stated, "The joint humanitarian effort is committed to locating and identifying U.S. service members who went missing in the war in Vietnam. These sustained efforts have been implemented for 40 years by the two governments."
Embassy officials also noted that "MIA cooperation is one of the long-standing pillars in the U.S.-Vietnam bilateral relationship that seeks to settle the war legacies between the two countries."
The potential remains were recovered by one of the two Vietnamese unilateral recovery teams, part of the 161st Joint Field Activity, which started in late October and concluded at the beginning of December; the teams continued operations during the U.S. government's lapse in appropriations.
"When DPAA teams were unable to travel due to the government shutdown, two Vietnamese recovery teams operated for 45 days, each augmented by 60 local villagers. It was the team in Yen Bai Province that recovered the remains that will soon be repatriated," McKeague said.
McKeague ended his remarks by thanking Vice Minister Giang, Deputy Minister Chien, and VNOSMP partners.
The potential remains were examined Dec. 5 in Hanoi by U.S. and Vietnamese forensic specialists, and it was determined that they might belong to a U.S. service member. DPAA will transport the potential remains to the Daniel K. Inouye DPAA Center of Excellence in Honolulu for further analysis.
To date, 1,067 U.S. service members missing in action have been identified from the Vietnam War.
