Vietnam returns US soldiers’ remains

It was the 160th handover ceremony of the remains of American soldiers missing during the Vietnam War. Attending the ceremony were officials from the Vietnamese Office for Searching for Missing Persons (VNOSMP), U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper, Defense Attaché Thomas J. Bouchillon, and leaders and members of the U.S. MIA Office in Hanoi, Vietnam’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

The finding of the remains of the two soldiers was a result of the 150th joint search, which took place from February to April 2023 in the central provinces of Nghe An and Quang Binh.

The remains were examined by Vietnamese and U.S. forensic experts in Da Nang, who concluded that they were related to U.S. soldiers missing during the Vietnam War. The remains will now be transferred to Hawaii for further verification.

The joint humanitarian search from U.S. soldiers missing in the Vietnam War has been conducted by the two governments of Vietnam and the U.S. since the late 1980s. The operation has identified 732 remains of U.S. soldiers so far.