Unit makes progress Over the past decade a Pentagon task force created to account for the missing from the war in Southeast Asia has trimmed the number of "last known alive" individuals to 115 from 235 as investigators uncover remains from that war or learn more about what happened to them.
in finding war remains
A task force honors its 10-year
commitment to bring MIAs homeBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comBrig. Gen. Steven Redmann, commander of Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, said the mission to account for the missing in action will "go on forever" because of the commitment by this country to account for these people.
"When you go out to fight," Redmann said, "the nation will take care of you ... and we will do this thing until it is over."
That is the commitment the country owes the men and women in uniform, he said.
He said all reports of servicemen believed to be still living in Southeast Asia decades after the fighting ended are checked out by Defense Intelligence Agency investigators at Hickam Air Force Base.
As the 160-member Pacific Command unit celebrated its 10th anniversary yesterday, it paused to honor seven colleagues who died in a helicopter crash last April while on a recovery mission. The crash also killed nine Vietnamese.
A plaque will be hung at the task force headquarters at Camp Smith. The plaque lists their names and a phrase the task force has always lived by, "You are not forgotten." At the end of the Camp Smith ceremony, Redmann read a personal letter from President Bush, who sent "a nation's greatest appreciation" for the work the task force does to account for missing Americans.
Since the unit formed in 1992, 323 sets of remains have been identified. Another 220 sets could not be identified.
In 1975 the Pentagon said there were 2,854 servicemen missing in action. That number has dropped to 1,947.
Since its inception, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting has conducted more than 3,500 investigations involving 126 joint field operations -- 50 in Vietnam, 54 in Laos, 19 in Cambodia and three in the North China Sea.
Redmann said that in the last 10 years, more progress was made than in the previous 19 years. Since January 1992, when the task force was established, it has resolved 323 cases in almost half the time previous organizations resolved 316 cases.
With an annual budget of $20 million, Redmann said his team of recovery experts conduct 10 field activities a year. Another $13 million is spent by the Air Force in providing transportation for the recovery teams.
The process leading to an excavation mission includes careful evaluation of eyewitness statements, information from family members, and photos and reports from that period, Redmann said. The task force also could seek more information from investigators about where the crash occurred or send teams to survey the area and talk to residents.
Once the decision is made to excavate a crash site, Redmann said, most recovery work is left to experts from the Army Central Identification Laboratory, the military's premier forensic facility, whose job is to recover and identify remains from the Vietnam War, World War II, the Korean War and the Cold War.
Redmann acknowledges that time is the task force's greatest enemy because eyewitnesses are getting older.
"Finding witnesses is getting harder and memories fail," he said.
The acid in the soil in those Southeast Asian countries not only destroys human remains, but aircraft parts.
In 1975 there were 2,584 military personnel missing in action from the war in Southeast Asia.
Since 1992, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting and the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory have completed 126 recovery missions in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and China.
There are still 1,947 servicemen unaccounted for from the war in Southeast Asia.
By country: Vietnam 1,468 Laos 411 Cambodia 60 China 8 By service: Army 617 Navy 401 Marine Corps 242 Air Force 648 Coast Guard 1 Civilian 38 Source: Joint Task Force-Full Accounting