22 April 1981

SUBJECT: Selection of Unknown from the Vietnam War

ISSUE: Air Force Position

BACKGROUND:

Public Law 93-43, approved by Congress on 18 June 1973, provided for the return to Arlington National Cemetery of the remains of an American who was a member of the Armed Forces who served in Southeast Asia (SEA) who lost his life during the Vietnam War, and whose identity has not been established.

A crypt for the interment of a symbolic Vietnam Unknown has been completed at the Tome of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington. However, remains recovered to date fro SEA do not meet the established selection criteria.

The employment of modern techniques in the forensic sciences has resulted in an almost totally successful identification of remains program. There are approximately 2,348 United States military personnel and 94 civilians who were serving in in SEA during the Vietnam War who have not been accounted for. Unless search and recovery operations which w4ere discontinued in SEA after the withdrawal of American Force are reinstituted, it is probable there will not be a Vietnam Unknown.

Presentation of remains to permit selection of a Vietnam Unknown to be entombed in Arlington National Cemetery is the responsibility of the Secretary of Defense. The responsibility is delegated to the Secretary of the Army as a result of his Executive Agent responsibility for the recovery, identification, and disposition of remains fro United States personnel who died in SEA during the Vietnam War, and further delegated to the Adjutant General as successor to the Army Memorial Affairs Agency.

the criteria for selection of the Unknown for World War II were developed by the Army Quartermaster General based upon experience gained in selection of the World War I Unknown. The same criteria were also successfully used for selection of the Unknown for the Korean War. Public Law 93-43 authorized and directed the Secretary of Defense to bring to the United States the remains of an American who was a member of the Armed Forces of the United Stats, who served in SEA and lost his life during the Vietnam War. and whose identity has not been established, for burial in the Memorial Amphitheater of Arlington National Cemetery.

1. Remains must have been recovered in South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia.

   
   

2. Remains have been examined by laboratory analysis and it has been reasonably concluded that death occurred between August 1964 and March 1973.

   
   

3. Remains must be nearly complete, generally considered to be 80%

   
   

4. The laboratory and field examination reasonably concluded that all remains are of the same individual, rather than different parts of commingled remains.

   
   

5. Remains must be located with some personal effects such as clothing, equipment or other media which would establish that the remains are those of a member of the Armed Forces of the United States.

   
   

6. Personal effects must not have identifying clues which may later be used to establish identity, such as initials on a ring.

   
   

7. Circumstances surrounding recovery of remains must be without significance as far as providing information which may make later identification probable, for example, remains located at the point that a platoon was ambushed and where the body of an individual was not recovered.

   
   

8. Cremated remains are eliminated.