A delegation of the Steering Committee on the Search and Repatriation of
Remains of Fallen Soldiers (Committee 1237) held a working session with
the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in Washington on
July 28, according to the Quan doi Nhan dan (People’s Army) newspaper.
At the meeting, Deputy Defence Minister Sen. Lieut.
Gen. Nguyen Thanh Cung who is deputy head of Committee 1237, affirmed
that the Vietnamese Government will continue to facilitate and
effectively cooperate with the US in the search for remains of both
sides’ soldiers missing in action (MIA).
He noted
that Vietnam has announced the list and opened almost all sites
where Americans were believed to have gone missing during the war. In
2009 and 2011, the country allowed the US Navy’s oceanographic research
ship to join the search for MIA remains in the waters offshore central
Vietnam .
To date, Vietnam has delivered 952
boxes of remains to the US, of which more than 700 sets of remains
have been identified.
At present, Vietnam and the US are conducting their 116th joint field activities with seven search teams.
The Deputy Defence Minister expressed his wish that the JPAC will
promptly provide the Vietnamese side with information on dead and
missing Vietnamese military men (about 200,000) as well as exchange
experience in searching for MIA.
He added that
Vietnam wants to accelerate the joint search for fallen or missing
Vietnamese soldiers as time has brought about great changes in landscape
and many witnesses have passed away.
For his
part, Lieut. Gen. Kelley Mc Keagne, JPAC Commander spoke highly of the
effective cooperation between the two Governments in this field.
He proposed cooperation in training Vietnamese staff in forensic anthropology and scientific exchange.
He asked Vietnam to continue assisting the US’s search teams when
they conduct two large-scale excavations in Vietnam in the fourth
quarter of 2014.-VNA