POW/MIA Affairs Committee Update January/February 2021

POW/MIA Flag

BY GRANT COATES, CHAIR

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced last September that U.S. Air Force Maj. Paul A. Avolese of East Meadow, New York, killed during the Vietnam War, had been accounted for.

According to DPAA, as of the end of last year 1,585 remain missing from the Vietnam War. The countries and number of missing are North Vietnam-442, South Vietnam-803, Laos-285, Cambodia-48, and the Peoples Republic of China-7.

A total of 998 Americans have been accounted for since the end of the Vietnam War. Recoveries were made in the following countries: Vietnam-673, Laos-280, Cambodia-42, and China-3. In addition, 63 U.S. personnel were accounted for between 1973 and 1975 and recovered in Laos-9, Vietnam-53, and Cambodia-1, for a grand total of 1,061.

The pandemic continues to affect DPAA activities. Procedures to collaborate remotely are being implemented. A second virtual meeting connecting more than 350 DPAA members worldwide was recently held. DPAA reported that one military member and two contractors tested positive for COVID-19 and that all have recovered.

In September DPAA and the Defense Intelligence Agency signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will increase the capabilities of DIA’s Stony Beach analysts in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia and improve joint intelligence research efforts in Vietnam War cases. Established in 1986, the Stony Beach Program has provided language specialists trained to conduct interviews, leverage relationships, and pursue case leads in Southeast Asia.

With restrictions in place since late March due to Hawaii COVID-19 policies, disinterment operations finally resumed in October at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific with the exhumation of 12 World War II veterans’ remains.

The Veterans Initiative Program needs your help. Objects taken from the battlefields of Vietnam are more than souvenirs or war trophies. Maps, stories, after-action reports, pictures, and other military items could help locate missing war dead.

Contact the Veterans Initiative at:
Veterans Initiative Program
Vietnam Veterans of America
8719 Colesville Rd., Suite 100
Silver Spring, MD 20910
vi@vva.org


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