News-Info-Alerts

Re: Former POWs to Honor Returning Remains

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: February 12, 2003

"Nation: MIA remains to be met by Vietnam POWs

By DAVID BRISCOE, Associated Press

HONOLULU (February 12, 2003 11:13 p.m. EST) - The remains of American servicemen who were missing in Laos for more than three decades are returning home this week and will be honored by their brothers-in-arms.
Former POWs from the same conflict, who are gathered to celebrate their first steps on American soil 30 years ago this week, will pause Friday to honor the remains as they touch down on U.S. soil - as well as thousands still missing in action.
The 25 or 30 former POWs from the Vietnam War will attend a brief repatriation ceremony for the remains Friday at Hickam Air Force Base.
The remains were found in Salavan Province, Laos, at crash sites of an F-4 fighter jet shot down in 1969 and a helicopter downed in 1972, said Ginger Couden, spokeswoman for the Army's Central Investigation Lab Hawaii.
Two men were aboard the jet and four on the helicopter, but no names will be released until the remains are identified. It was not known exactly how many bodies were recovered. Full identification could take months or years, Couden said.
She said a plane carrying the remains will arrive Friday morning and another shipment from the same sites is expected in several days.
Remains unearthed by military recovery teams continue to arrive every few weeks at the lab, which identifies bodies recovered from World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars.
Four U.S. recovery teams have been working in Laos and two in Cambodia since mid-January; a team is also working in Papua New Guinea. Five more teams are set to leave for Vietnam next week.
In all, 1,889 Americans are still missing in Vietnam and nearby countries, 8,100 in the two Koreas and 78,000 from World War II in Europe and the Pacific, Couden said.

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