Search for Vietnam MIAs continues
By Dave Moniz, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon continues to account for troops missing in Southeast Asia as the nation marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon on Saturday.
This week, the Pentagon identified the remains of four more U.S. servicemen, lost in 1967. It brought the total of long-missing Vietnam troops accounted for to 748, according to Larry Greer, spokesman for the Pentagon's POW/MIA office.
A total of 1,835 U.S. servicemen from the Vietnam War who are listed as missing have not been located. That figure is far lower than the totals for Korea, which still has more than 8,100 missing, and World War II, which has more than 78,000 missing, Greer said.
The search for Americans in Vietnam has been the subject of controversy for several decades because efforts by the U.S. and Vietnam to locate missing Americans appeared slow. (Related story: Vietnam: 30 years later)
The POW/MIA office gathers information on possible locations of remains and coordinates visits with foreign governments and U.S. teams trained to excavate crash or battle sites.
"It's like solving a 50- to 60-year-old detective case," Greer said.
The detective work meant a lot to Albert Miller, an attorney in Clearwater, Fla. His younger brother, Malcolm, a Navy corpsman, went missing in Vietnam on May 10, 1967. The Pentagon announced the recovery of his remains Monday.
"I am not sad," Miller said. "This is a celebration of his life."
U.S. search teams have combed the countryside in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and China, often following up on tips from former Vietnamese military officers.
Recovered remains are sent to laboratories in Hawaii and Maryland, where scientists verify their identities with dental records and DNA testing.
Johnie Webb, a senior adviser at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Honolulu, said his office's 18 recovery teams each spend about six months a year in the field.
Finding Vietnam-era MIAs is complicated by the weather and mountainous terrain, Webb said. The rugged central highlands have a four-month window of good weather. That's led to a four- or five-year backlog of cases to be investigated.
Greer called Vietnam's cooperation "good," but "we'd always like to see more."
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