Repatriation ceremony held for US servicemen’s remains

Attending the Ceremony, for the Vietnamese side were Representatives from the Board of Directors of Vietnam Office for Seeking Missing Personnel (VNOSMP) and, for the U.S. side were Consul General Mary Tarnowka in Ho Chi Minh City, representatives of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and the U.S MIA Office in Hanoi.

The Vietnamese side’s representative handed over to the U.S. side 03 (three) boxes of remains which were recovered by joint and unilateral excavation teams during the 130th Joint Field Activities from February to April, 2018. The remains had been jointly reviewed and concluded by Vietnamese and U.S. forensic specialists in Hanoi that they might be associated with the U.S. servicemen missing during the war in Vietnam and were recommended to bring to Hawaii, United States, for further review.

Addressing at the Repatriation Ceremony, the U.S. Government representative expressed deep gratitude and high appreciation for the steadfast humanitarian policy, good-will, the full and increasingly efficient cooperation of the Vietnamese Government and people.

The seeking of the remains of U.S. servicemen missing during the war in Vietnam is humanitarian cooperation between the Vietnamese Government and the U.S Government. This is the 143rd hand-over of American missing servicemen’s remains since 1973.