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FREEBIRD
03-28-05, 07:53 PM
U.S. POW/MIA Delegation Leads Talks in Laos



Senior officials from Laos and the U.S. concluded talks this week reaffirming close cooperation in the mission to account for missing Americans from the Vietnam War.

Director, Europe-Americas Department of Laos’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs Southam Sakonhninhom opened and closed the discussions with officials from the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO). He stated that he considered the U.S. and Laos to be one team with the same vision, working to carry out the same mission.

The discussion began a two-day visit to assess Lao cooperation, address the efforts of the Lao government in an archival research initiative begun last year, and to express appreciation for strategies to help accelerate the accounting efforts in Laos. In addition to new levels of assistance in archival research, Laos has worked cooperatively with the U.S. over the past year in areas such as: allowing U.S. teams more flexibility to conduct investigations and excavations; investigating cases requiring close coordination between the U.S., Laos, and Vietnam; refining the Lao unilateral investigation program; and enhancing the safety of American and Lao personnel by streamlining medical evacuation procedures.

While in Laos, the team spent a day and a half in southern Laos where specialists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command are seeking to recover American remains. U.S. officials noted the “one team” concept being put into practice at all levels during their visits to the Ta-oy base camp as well as to several excavation sites.

Weather and terrain in the area have made the joint work even more challenging. Workers at one of the aircraft crash sites scaled almost 90-degree slopes in their search for clues for the missing. Six poisonous snakes were found at one site, and various unexploded ordnance, including 500-pound bombs, were scattered throughout the sites. Despite the hardships, morale among the almost 50 Americans and more than 400 Lao was high, and the work in the field was clearly benefiting from the close cooperation and flexibility. The DPMO officials praised the work of both the U.S. specialists and their Lao counterparts.

The U.S. delegation departed Laos on today.

Of the 1,836 Americans missing from the Vietnam War, the remains of 375 are believed to be in Laos. Since the end of the war, 194 Americans have been accounted-for from Laos.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans from all conflicts, visit the DPMO web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo, or call 703-699-1169.

Forget??.............NEVER!!!

FREEBIRD
USMC 69-76

Sgted
03-28-05, 10:39 PM
NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense

No. 289-05
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mar 25, 2005
Media Contact: (703)697-5131
Public/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711

Missing In Action Serviceman Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. Navy pilot, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Navy Lieutenant Commander J. Forrest G. Trembley of Spokane,
Wash.,will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on April 1.

On August 21, 1967, Trembley and his fellow crewman took off in
their A-6A *Intruder* from the U.S.S. Constellation on a strike mission against the Duc Noi rail yards near Hanoi, North Vietnam. On leaving the target area, their aircraft and another one in the flight were attacked by enemy MiGs. When last seen, the two aircraft were disappearing into the clouds near the
Vietnamese-Chinese border. The last radio message from Trembley indicated the MiGs were in hot pursuit, but no further communications were heard.


Later that day, the Chinese government reported that two U.S.
A-6s had been shot down over the People's Republic of China (PRC). The broadcast noted that one of the four crewmen had been captured but the other three died in the shoot down. The Chinese released the surviving crewman in March 1973.


With the assistance of the Chinese government, a joint U.S.-PRC
team interviewed witnesses to the shoot down and crash in 1993 and 1999. U.S. specialists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) interviewed a Chinese citizen near the crash site. He turned over Trembley's identification tag and fragmentary human remains alleged to be those of American pilots. The team recovered some pilot's gear from a burial site, but found no additional human remains.

Scientists of the JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification
Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA as one of the forensic tools to identify the remains as those of Trembley.

Of the 88,000 Americans missing in action from all conflicts,
1,836 are from the Vietnam War, with 1,399 of those within the country of Vietnam. Another 747 Americans have been accounted for since the end of the Vietnam War.



For additional information on the Defense Department's mission
to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO web site at
www.dtic.mil/dpmo, or call 703-699-1169.