In Hanoi on January 24, 2018, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis toured Detachment 2, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, with U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel J. Kritenbrink. The agency's mission is to achieve the fullest possible accounting for US personnel still missing from the Vietnam War, now numbering 1,601. That same day, a delegation from the National League of POW/MIA Families, headed by Chairman and CEO Ann Mills Griffiths, and a delegation from the Special Operations Association (SOA) and Special Forces Association (SFA), headed by Mike Taylor, chairman of the Joint SOA/SFA POW/MIA Committee, also visited DPAA Detachment 2 and received a Country Team briefing at the US Embassy. The League delegation also met that same day with the chairman and members of the Vietnam Office for Seeking MIssing Persons (VNOSMP), longstanding Vietnamese interagency team tasked by the Prime Minister with managing Vietnam's POW/MIA accounting cooperation and the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. Today, the League Delegation met with senior officials in Vietnam's Ministry of National Defense, and the SOA/SFA Delegation met with Vietnamese veterans who opposed MACV-SOG operations along the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the war to enlist their assistance with resolving cases that resulted from the secret war in Laos and Cambodia. The delegations are in Hanoi as part of a four-nation Southeast Asia visit, having already visited Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, to promote increased efforts to account for missing Americans. (DoD photo below by Army Sgt. Amber I. Smith) Visit www.dvidshub.net/search?q=dpaa&view=grid to see photos of DPAA Joint Field activities and more PRESIDENT TRUMP VISITS VIETNAM, NOVEMBER 11, 2017 Both leaders reaffirmed the importance of continued cooperation to address the legacies of war. In this regard, President Quang expressed appreciation for the contribution of the United States to the successful dioxin remediation at Da Nang Airport, and welcomed the United States commitment to contribute to remediation at Bien Hoa Airport. He welcomed further United States assistance for persons with disabilities. President Trump expressed his appreciation for Vietnam’s full and continued cooperation in accounting for United States personnel still missing from the war, and pledged to cooperate with Vietnam in its efforts to locate its missing soldiers. The two leaders committed to cooperation in the removal of remnants of explosives from the war.
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