DOD informs families of those missing from Vietnam War > Department of Defense > Department of Defense News

The Department of Defense is committed to finding, recovering, identifying and repatriating the remains of its missing heroes, said Kelly K. McKeague, director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

McKeague spoke yesterday with families of missing soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War. Agency officials will continue to update families individually on the search for their loved ones at meetings in Washington today.

While DPAA has searched for military personnel from all wars since World War II, the agency has made finding the Vietnam War missing a top priority because firsthand witnesses are aging and dying in several countries where operations took place, he said.

Senior Defense Department officials have been visiting Southeast Asian leaders to lay the groundwork for sending DPAA teams to examine and excavate possible remains, he said, adding that discussions with officials in Vietnam, Cambodia, China and Thailand have been fruitful.

Everyone at the Department of Defense, not just at DPAA, believes the agency’s mission is a sacred obligation and a moral imperative, McKeague said.

“These are world-renowned figures, whether historians, scientists, archaeologists or anthropologists. And as well-known as they are, what sets them apart is not their professionalism, which is breathtaking, but their passion, their dedication and their commitment to you,” he said.

“Their loved ones made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation. The nation – and we are just an instrument of that nation – has a moral obligation to do everything humanly possible to give you those answers,” he said, referring to finding the missing and bringing them home. While Vietnam is the agency’s priority, DPAA teams are deployed in dozens of other countries outside of Southeast Asia, searching for remains from World War II, the Korean War and other periods.