The United States Embassy in Phnom Penh held a ceremonial event on March 27 to honor two fallen U.S. service members from the Vietnam War era. The event marked the repatriation of remains believed to be from a U.S. aircraft crash site in Ratanakiri Province, over 50 years ago. U.S. Embassy Phnom Penh Charge d’Affaires Bridgette Walker and Vice Chairman of the Kingdom of Cambodia’s POW/MIA Committee, H.E. Sieng Lapresse led the proceedings in Cambodia.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), supported by teams from Ohio Valley Archaeology, Inc. and Golden West, conducted the excavation. It is hoped that the gathered material will lead to identifying the two missing service members and offer closure for their families.
This ceremony was the first of its kind in Cambodia since 2015, marking significant progress in investigating the loss of the aircraft and the missing service members. Following the ceremony, the remains are set to be transported to the DPAA Laboratory in Honolulu for rigorous analysis. If identification is successful, the families of the service members will be informed.
Throughout 2025, the U.S. is commemorating the 75th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations with Cambodia. With the collaboration of the Cambodian POW/MIA Committee, DPAA aims to account for the 48 U.S. personnel still missing in Cambodia. The DPAA is engaged in global missions to locate and recover over 82,000 U.S. service members unaccounted for from conflicts ranging from World War II to now.
The DPAA's mission is to return the fullest possible accounting of U.S. military personnel from past conflicts to their families and the nation. It oversees the largest forensic skeletal identification laboratory globally, employing over 30 specialized anthropologists, archaeologists, and forensic odontologists.
For more information regarding DPAA’s mission and how it aids Americans who went missing while serving, please visit the DPAA website or follow them on their social media platforms.