OF AMERICAN
PRISONERS AND MISSING IN
SOUTHEAST ASIA
UPDATE: September 2, 2011
AMERICANS IDENTIFIED:
There are now 1,683
Americans listed
by the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) as missing and
unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War.
On August 29th,
DPMO posted the names of Col
Gilbert S. Palmer, Jr, USAF, listed MIA in Laos 2/27/68, and Lt Col Edward D. Silver,
USAF, listed MIA in
North Vietnam 7/5/68, as
accounted-for. Col Palmer’s remains were jointly recovered
on 11/17/09 and identified 5/19/11. Lt Col Silver’s remains were
repatriated 6/26/98 and identified 5/31/11. DPMO also
recently posted the news that Major Thomas E. Clark, USAF,
PA, listed as MIA in Laos on 2/8/69, and Major Bruce E. Lawrence,
USAF, NJ, listed as MIA in North Vietnam 7/5/68, are now
accounted-for. Major Clark’s remains were jointly recovered on
11/16/05 and identified 6/3/11. Major Lawrence’s remains were
recovered 6/26/98 and identified 6/3/11.
The number of Americans returned and
identified since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 is now
900; another 63 US personnel, recovered post-incident
and identified before the end of the war, bring the total to 961.
Of the 1,683 unreturned American veterans from the Vietnam War, our
POW/MIAs, 90% were lost in Vietnam or in areas of Laos and
Cambodia under Vietnam’s wartime control: Vietnam�1,292
(VN-473, VS-819); Laos�326; 6; Cambodia�58; Peoples Republic of
China territorial waters�7; over 450 were over-water losses.