News-Info-Alerts

Re: Laos Recovery

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: August 06, 2002

"Official says remains of missing U.S. soldiers returned from Laos

The Associated Press

BANGKOK, Thailand (August 1, 2002 4:10 p.m. EDT) - The remains of two U.S. soldiers who died in Laos during the Vietnam War have been returned to the United States, a U.S. official said Thursday.

U.S. investigators found the bones of the soldiers at two sites in Savannakhet province and handed them over to U.S. officials at a ceremony last Saturday, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.

The remains, which have been sent to laboratories in Hawaii, were found by search teams from the U.S. Joint Task Force, a recovery operation launched in 1992, an official statement said.

The Joint Task Force has identified the remains of 174 Americans found in Laos since it began recovery efforts in 1992. There are some 400 Americans still listed as missing in Laos from the war.

Laos was heavily bombed by the United States during the Vietnam War in a vain attempt to interdict communist supply lines that ran through Laos. U.S. planes also targeted the Vietnamese-backed Pathet Lao communists who eventually took power in Laos in 1975.

There are currently 1,907 Americans listed as missing in action from the war. There were 2,584 missing at the end of the war in 1975, according to the Joint Task Force web site.

In addition to U.S. servicemen, the teams are searching for the remains of U.S. missionaries, government officials, contractors and journalists, officials have said. "