European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 20, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 the stars and stripes july Day remains from Vietnam 99 and counting by Clint Swift Washington Bureau chief Washington the vietnamese have sent the remains of 99 americans Back Home since and department of defense officials say the Pace is begin Ning to initiatives through a neighbouring country Indonesia have brought a recent Public announcement that the vietnamese again Are willing to enter into negotiations with High level officials to resolve this Issue within the next two a Dod spokesman this announcement is Welcome and the government will move rapidly to pursue this Issue in the same repatriation of remains has been under Way since when the Paris peace agreement was Arti Cle 8 called on both sides to Send prisoners of War return remains of the dead and Exchange information about the before the fall of Saigon in teams from the joint casualty Resolution Center searched the mountains and Jungles of South Vietnam for efforts in the North were limited to but Between april 1973 and april the Hanoi government returned the remains of 23 the spokesman during the next six state department and defense department officials met with the vietnamese on the pow officials of the casualty Center met with vietnamese officials in Hawaii in 1978 and 1982 and went to Hanoi in 1980 and 1981 to discuss technical aspects of the accounting in september after a visit by representatives of the National league of the vietnamese agreed to schedule meetings of the technical experts four times a in february Richard assistant Secre tary of defense for International Security led a delegation including representatives of the state depart the National Security Council and the National league of families to that meeting led to a vietnamese pledge to accelerate concentrating at first on the accessible area around Hanoi and the cases of those who died in at the the vietnamese pledged to turn Over eight sets of remains six turned out to be those of missing american service at the technical session last the vietnamese announced they would soon return five sets of remains and took the americans on a visit to a aircraft crash site in the North of at a meeting the following the vietnamese agreed to raise the number of technical meetings to six a later in the they turned Over six sets of re Mains All were identified As those of americans and were returned to the victims among the six were the first two from a 1973 list of 37 americans who the vietnamese said died in during the most recent technical july in the vietnamese said that in about two months they would turn Over the remains of 26 More americans and identification material or information on six the vietnamese also took officials to Survey the site of a b52 bomber a necessary first step be fore an about men Are listed As miss ing in last contacts going on since 1982 resulted in a joint excavation of a c130 crash near technicians at the army Central identification Laboratory in Hawaii were Able to identify the remains of All 13 men the government lists 556 men As still missing in unaccounted for americans army Navy air Force Marine corps coast guard civilians total area of loss North Vietnam South Vietnam Laos Cambodia China total state Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky 706 500 924 291 1 42 718 556 82 6 evidence on missing in Southeast Asia must be defense officials say by Clint Swift Washington Bureau chief Washington what kind of Evi Dence would it take to convince officials that an american was still being held in Southeast Asia fresh and specific Evi defense officials it is unrealistic to assume that a single refugee report will justify decisive action without additional a spokes Man one Hope is that a report can be strengthened and supported through technical another is that More than one report will be specific and similar As to place and at least one sources credibility will been handed by polygraph the simple fact despite the Many reports since 1975 we have received and the technical Means available unaccounted for servicemen by state total Louisiana 43 Maine 3 Maryland 25 Massachusetts 27 Michigan 249 Minnesota 41 Mississippi 39 Missouri 5 Montana 9 Nebraska 82 Nevada 48 new Hampshire 11 new Jersey 12 new Mexico 102 new York 71 North Carolina 39 North Dakota 38 Ohio 22 Oklahoma 34 18 37 60 77 47 18 51 21 25 10 10 63 17 159 61 17 129 49 Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming puerto Rico Virgin islands other total 46 125 10 30 9 44 161 23 4 62 60 26 37 6 2 1 7 in addition to the 42 civilians Are still unaccounted centers files profile service members by Clint Swift Washington Bureau chief Washington interviewers from the joint casualty Resolution Center travel to refugee Camps in in Hong Kong and the producing 200 to 250 reports a year on americans missing in Southeast shortly Field operations in in and provided to service casualty officers to w f secure areas were turned Over to trained vietnamese teams directed by Center after Vietnam fell to the comm Center efforts concentrated on refining information and planning for the Day when Field searches could be Over documents have been As a department of defense summary Analysed and processed through automated data processing to devel be passed to uncorrelated re ports Are continuously compared with each other in an Effort to find patterns that were not evident at when remains Are they Are delivered to the army Central identification Laboratory in Center analysts compare information from the re to no single report or combination of reports and technical sensors has thus far been specific enough to be intelligence officials have declined to be specific about their collection Means be cause describing them publicly would jeopardize their but a former top official of the defense intelligence Agency told Congress earlier this month that the Only Way left to obtain ultimately convincing evidence is to insert an agent to Check out the site of a the defense spokesman said it is the weight of evidence the Many the information provided by the communist governments in Indochina and the knowledge that some of the missing sur Vived the incidents in which they were lost that keeps officials from ruling out the possibility that at least one american May still be held against his will in the with the buildup of forces in indo China in the Middle a regular flow of captured documents and enemy former communist sympathizers and refugees provided information about Ameri can prisoners and in the defense department assigned pos its highest intelligence and Dod and Central intelligence Agency employees were notified of expanded formal col Lection the spokesman later that with Hanoi announce ment that prisoners would be tried for War the Effort a net work of debriefing and interrogation Cen ters was developed in cooperation with government intelligence agencies in Viet Nam and native teams checked out crash and detention Sites and reports of sightings of Media coverage and photography of pos were and communist broadcasts were carefully since the withdrawal from Vietnam in the main source of information on prisoners and missing has been they continue to overflow the Borders of the three main countries involved Viet and the principal responsibility for evaluating reports of americans sighted in Southeast Asia belongs to the defense intelligence turning country with the Date in the files the at the naval air of the most accurate information possible to prepare a list of possible Barbers keeps Active Case concerning the Fate of military and i Laboratory workers compare recorded files on military personnel and Vilian the spokesman physiological characteristics of the Ridenti 42 american civilians missing the Center has plotted the probable Loca nation candidates with the or dead but not tons of 600 recovery Case con tentative identifications Are reviewed for the first year after it was Stab Taining a description of the incident in which by the armed services Graves registry Agency Tjw Agency Rolein listed in the Center concentrated on the american was a photo of the missing Tion office in Washington before being grew through the until it assumed recovery operations in South a person and a map of the most Likely recovery submitted to the services for leadership of the defense departments in defense spokesman during the sum area have been prepared for discussion with the Center is staffed by 16 service Tell gence task Force on pow Mia prob 142 sea dives were made in 82 the they have been translated members and four the staff in lems late the spokesman into Khmer and and Many eludes a fireman Liaison office at the followup action flows through the de already have been passed to the vietnamese embassy in the joint chiefs of sense attache the joint casualty and lao staff recently authorized four More people Resolution Center Liaison office in bang refugee reports that correlate with a for the Center Headquarters and two More embassies and Dia or other Mil Tive cases Are incorporated into the flies for itary officials in the United but top Little evidence resulted in no Iden in a Field team was ambushed during a recovery and an american officer was killed and several team members were