Remains of Vietnam War soldier repatriated: US

From the Daily Times: Remains of Vietnam War soldier repatriated: US

HANOI: Remains believed to be of an American special forces soldier listed as missing during the Vietnam War have been repatriated after a fellow serviceman helped locate the body, a US official said Thursday.

After a ceremony Wednesday in the central city of Danang, the remains, along with others from a separate incident, were flown to Hawaii for further identification, said Ron Ward of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC). They were recovered during a recent mission to find Americans missing in action from the war which ended almost four decades ago. Ward said the special forces soldier and his colleague were the only two Americans left defending a strategic high point in 1971 above Khe Sanh, near the then-Demilitarized Zone.

One received a Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions on the hill — he was captured and later released by North Vietnamese troops who overran the site — while the other was listed as missing, Ward said. The decorated soldier returned to help JPAC, which worked alongside Vietnamese colleagues, locate where the other soldier was last seen in Quang Tri province, Ward said.

JPAC does not release any names until the identification of remains has been confirmed.

In a second case, investigators located possible remains from at least one American missing after a helicopter crash in Quang Nam province in 1968, Ward said. The US and Vietnam began cooperating on investigations into missing American servicemen in 1985, helping pave the way for a normalisation of diplomatic relations 10 years later.

With witnesses ageing and acidic soil eating into the buried remains, investigators are racing to find the bodies of those still classed as missing.