Suspected Remains of US Serviceman Missing in Action Repatriated

The remains were found during the 151st joint search held this year. Source: US's embassy in Vietnam

Members of the US Defence Prisoners of War/Missing In Action (DPAA) and the Vietnam Office for Seeking Missing Persons (VNOSMP) on June 27 held the 161st repatriation ceremony handing over the remains possibly belonging to a US servicemember missing in action (MIA) from the war in Vietnam at the Da Nang International Airport in Da Nang City.

At the ceremony, the VNOSMP representatives handed over one set of remains to the DPAA.

The remains were found as a result of the 161st joint field activity (JFA) from recovery operations in the central province of Nghe An, the central coastal province of Quang Binh, and off the coast of Khanh Hoa province.

The 161st JFA started in mid-May and will conclude at the end of July. Dignitaries from the US Embassy in Hanoi, and Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, and other embassies attended the event. Consulate General Susan Burns from HCM City and VNOSMP Director Le Cong Tien presided over the event.

Vietnamese and US forensic specialists examined the remains on June 26 in Da Nang and determined that the remains might belong to a US servicemember missing in action from the war in Vietnam.

The US side will transfer the remains to DPAA’s laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii for further verification.

Joint searches for US servicemen missing in action in Vietnam are a humanitarian activity conducted between the countries’ governments.

Regarding cooperation in searching and collecting the remains of Vietnamese martyrs, based on the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation signed in July 2021, the two sides actively carried out activities and achieved remarkable results.

According to VNA, the US side has so far provided Vietnam with more than 30 sets of documents on Vietnamese soldiers who died or went missing in the war, plus many war memorabilia, he said, adding the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense hopes for further support from the US in this regard, especially when Vietnam has about 180,000 missing martyrs.

A ceremony also was held in Hanoi on June 8 to mark the 50th founding anniversary of the VNOSMP and the 35th anniversary of the joint operation to search for US servicemen who were MIA during the war in Vietnam.

The collection comprises five diaries and 30 letters written during the war. Photo: qdnd.vn

Earlier this month, US Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Centre and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive has handed over a collection of diaries and letters of Vietnamese soldiers, mostly of those who had died during the wartime in Vietnam, to their families and relatives at a ceremony in Hanoi.

According to the organiser - the “Trai tim Nguoi linh Viet Nam” (The Heart of Vietnamese Soldiers) organisation, the collection comprises five diaries and 30 letters written during the war. It is part of the Vietnam War Legacy project implemented by the Vietnam Centre and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive.

President of the organisation Colonel Dang Vuong Hung said that during the anti-US resistance war, thousands of notebooks, diaries, handwritten letters and personal items of soldiers from the north and the liberation force in southern Vietnam were captured by the enemy on the battlefield.

The majority of them were destroyed. Some of them were kept and digitalised by the Vietnam Centre and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive as part of the non-profit project “Vietnam War Legacy”.

Phan Dinh Deu, the younger brother of martyr Phan Dinh Dieu from Hai Duong province said he was moved to see the handwritings of his brother nearly 60 years after his death. He said his family hopes to find the remains of Dieu and bring him home.

At the ceremony, the “Trai tim Nguoi linh Viet Nam” organisation and the Vietnam Centre and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive signed an agreement on the handover of the documents of the Vietnam War Legacy project and the return of artifacts to the fallen soldiers’ families.

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