Latest news with #MIAs
Boston Globe
04-07-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
Vietnam aches for its MIAs. Will America stop funding science to identify them?
The search for around 2,600 missing Americans from the Vietnam War has been a first-order issue for Washington and Hanoi ever since the conflict ended. But on that humid June afternoon in northern Vietnam, grave diggers with doctorates were gathering the bones of Vietnam's own missing warriors, whose ranks exceed 1 million, with an urgency and reverence befitting a task long overdue. The scientists were there to advance a recent breakthrough by putting it to use. A few months earlier, they and their partners — including the International Commission on Missing Persons, in The Hague — had figured out the chemistry and computing required to identify remains as badly degraded as those often found in Vietnam's acidic, tropical soil. For the first time, tiny snips of DNA taken from bones up to 70 years old could be used to link the country's fallen soldiers to distant relatives, unlocking lost truths and deeper healing. Families from Vietnam's north and south, their anguish still festering 50 years after the war ended, could find reconciliation in graves where their war dead lie together. Americans still unaccounted for might be found, too, as Vietnam's identification efforts expanded. Methods honed locally could also extend far beyond Vietnam, to help identify those lost to wildfires, typhoons, or other natural disasters worldwide. Advertisement 'Groundbreaking,' said Tim McMahon, director of DNA operations for the US Defense Department. That's how he described the new methods of accounting for the lost, adding: 'It's the next jump in identification.' Advertisement One thing that DNA analysis requires, however, is practice. Repetition at scale improves technique. But for Vietnam and the world, the opportunity that comes with the largest human identification project on the planet is now being threatened by the Trump administration's hostility toward foreign aid. The five-year grant from the United States that had sustained Vietnam's DNA project — paying for sequencing machines and collaborations with the U.S. military and the International Commission on Missing Persons — was suspended with the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development in January. The restored money that's left runs out in September. Before the disruptions, the scientists doing exhumations said they had aimed to identify 1,000 Vietnamese MIAs by July 11, the 30th anniversary of normalized US-Vietnam relations. That, they believed, would prove what former enemies could accomplish by pursuing closure through science. Now they are hoping for one. Thousands of miles from Washington, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vu Thi Ninh Thuy, 42, shared a common Vietnamese war story. A parade marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the conflict had just finished. As graying veterans strolled past the hotel where US generals once briefed reporters on daily body counts, she brought up her uncle, who vanished while fighting the Americans in 1974. Her eyes darting with emotion, she recounted how her childhood had been filled with exploratory trips south and north to look for him. Her family questioned his comrades. They visited local officials and eventually found a psychic who directed them, incorrectly, to a location not far from where she stood on that April morning. Advertisement 'We all feel restless until we can find their remains,' she said. 'Everyone who is Vietnamese wants to bring their loved ones closer to home.' Modern psychology teaches that 'ambiguous loss' — where death remains unverified and without resolution — freezes the grieving process, leading to chronic sorrow. In Vietnam, the pain is compounded by ancient beliefs. The country's common practice of ancestor worship, with offerings left at graves and shrines, dictates that if the dead aren't interred with other ancestors, the person's soul wanders homeless and hungry. Burying and honoring the dead is considered an obligation of the living. Vietnam's official efforts to account for those killed in the war have often been haphazard and hampered by bureaucracy. The remains of at least 300,000 fighters for North Vietnam have been found but not identified. In 2014, the Vietnamese government took a major step toward addressing those shortcomings, announcing that it would invest $25 million in a DNA identification project. A new lab opened on the outskirts of Hanoi in 2019. A year later, the International Commission on Missing Persons came on board. The project expanded with $7.4 million from USAID, awarded over five years, a fraction of what is spent annually to find and identify missing Americans. Experts such as Thomas Parsons have tried to fill gaps in the effort. Wiry and lean, with a frame easily lost in a lab coat, Parsons is a globally recognized authority on forensic genetics and the international commission's lead scientist in Vietnam. Advertisement In March, at the lab near Hanoi, he resembled a mountain climber with no mountain to climb. On a table, a NextSeq 1000, a 'high-throughput' sequencing system delivered in November at a cost of about $220,000, sat idle. It was one of many sophisticated machines covered in plastic after USAID's elimination. Parsons and his Vietnamese colleagues stressed that US foreign aid was not a handout, but rather a way to train Vietnam's researchers for an ambitious task using new genetic methods and technologies. 'We've already achieved a lot,' said Tran Trung Thanh, a molecular biologist and the lab's deputy director. 'We need more time to apply it in practice.' The main breakthrough occurred a few months before Donald Trump's inauguration, with 23 Vietnamese bone samples degraded by age and tropical conditions. Using chemical solutions and high-tech analysis, scientists from the international commission found that 70 percent of the samples generated DNA profiles capable of being matched to a parent or child. Several samples generated enough genetic material to connect with a single great-great-grandchild or even a first cousin's child or parent. Before last year, 9 of every 10 Vietnamese bone samples yielded nothing identifiable. Since President Clinton announced the restoration of diplomatic relations 30 years ago, Vietnam has handed over more than 1,000 sets of American remains. Ambassador Marc Knapper, the son of a Vietnam veteran, has lobbied behind the scenes for the United States to continue supporting Vietnam's MIA program. The International Commission on Missing Persons also wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking that funding be restored. In March, the project received a partial reprieve: US officials told scientists that they would receive the money allotted through the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Advertisement A State Department spokesperson said that maintaining 'the right mix of programs to support US national security and other core national interests of the United States requires an agile approach.' Instead of requesting another five-year grant, the International Commission on Missing Persons has requested $3 million from the United States to keep the project going for 12 to 18 months. 'If we don't receive funding beyond September,' Kathryne Bomberger, the commission's director general, said in an interview, 'the program will probably end.' This article originally appeared in
Miami Herald
04-07-2025
- Science
- Miami Herald
Vietnam aches for its MIAs. Will America stop funding science to identify them?
The tombstones said 'unknown martyr.' The bones were decades old and covered in reddish mud, staining the white lab coats of a half-dozen visiting scientists. 'This tooth good?' asked a junior researcher, holding up a jawbone pulled from a grave. 'No, too decayed,' said his boss, an experienced geneticist. 'It has a copper dental crown.' The search for around 2,600 missing Americans from the Vietnam War has been a first-order issue for Washington and Hanoi ever since the conflict ended. But on that humid June afternoon in northern Vietnam, grave diggers with doctorates were gathering the bones of Vietnam's own missing warriors, whose ranks exceed 1 million, with an urgency and reverence befitting a task long overdue. The scientists were there to advance a recent breakthrough by putting it to use. A few months earlier, they and their partners -- including the International Commission on Missing Persons, in The Hague -- had figured out the chemistry and computing required to identify remains as badly degraded as those often found in Vietnam's acidic, tropical soil. For the first time, tiny snips of DNA taken from bones up to 70 years old could be used to link the country's fallen soldiers to distant relatives, unlocking lost truths and deeper healing. Families from Vietnam's north and south, their anguish still festering 50 years after the war ended, could find reconciliation in graves where their war dead lie together. Americans still unaccounted for might be found, too, as Vietnam's identification efforts expanded. Methods honed locally could also extend far beyond Vietnam, to help identify those lost to wildfires, typhoons or other natural disasters worldwide. 'Groundbreaking,' said Tim McMahon, director of DNA operations for the U.S. Defense Department. That's how he described the new methods of accounting for the lost, adding: 'It's the next jump in identification.' One thing that DNA analysis requires, however, is practice. Repetition at scale improves technique. But for Vietnam and the world, the opportunity that comes with the largest human identification project on the planet is now being threatened by the Trump administration's hostility toward foreign aid. The five-year grant from the United States that had sustained Vietnam's DNA project -- paying for sequencing machines and collaborations with the U.S. military and the International Commission on Missing Persons -- was suspended with the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development in January. The restored money that's left runs out in September. Before the disruptions, the scientists doing exhumations said they had aimed to identify 1,000 Vietnamese MIAs by July 11, the 30th anniversary of normalized U.S.-Vietnam relations. That, they believed, would prove what former enemies could accomplish by pursuing closure through science. Now they are hoping for one. What Vietnam Wants Thousands of miles from Washington, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vu Thi Ninh Thuy, 42, shared a common Vietnamese war story. A parade marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the conflict had just finished. As graying veterans strolled past the hotel where U.S. generals once briefed reporters on daily body counts, she brought up her uncle, who vanished while fighting the Americans in 1974. Her eyes darting with emotion, she recounted how her childhood had been filled with exploratory trips south and north to look for him. Her family questioned his comrades. They visited local officials and eventually found a psychic who directed them, incorrectly, to a location not far from where we stood on that April morning. 'We all feel restless until we can find their remains,' she said. 'Everyone who is Vietnamese wants to bring their loved ones closer to home.' Modern psychology teaches that 'ambiguous loss' -- where death remains unverified and without resolution -- freezes the grieving process, leading to chronic sorrow. In Vietnam, the pain is compounded by ancient beliefs. The country's common practice of ancestor worship, with offerings left at graves and shrines, dictates that if the dead aren't interred with other ancestors, the person's soul wanders homeless and hungry. Burying and honoring the dead is considered an obligation of the living. Vietnam's official efforts to account for those killed in the war have often been haphazard and hampered by bureaucracy. The remains of at least 300,000 fighters for North Vietnam have been found but not identified. In 2014, the Vietnamese government took a major step toward addressing those shortcomings, announcing that it would invest $25 million in a DNA identification project. A new lab opened on the outskirts of Hanoi in 2019. A year later, the International Commission on Missing Persons came on board. The project expanded with $7.4 million from USAID, awarded over five years, a fraction of what is spent annually to find and identify missing Americans. Experts like Thomas Parsons have tried to fill gaps in the effort. Wiry and lean, with a frame easily lost in a lab coat, Parsons is a globally recognized authority on forensic genetics and the international commission's lead scientist in Vietnam. When we met in March at the lab near Hanoi, he resembled a mountain climber with no mountain to climb. On a table, a NextSeq 1000, a 'high-throughput' sequencing system delivered in November at a cost of about $220,000, sat idle. It was one of many sophisticated machines covered in plastic after USAID's elimination. Parsons and his Vietnamese colleagues stressed that U.S. foreign aid was not a handout, but rather a way to train Vietnam's researchers for an ambitious task using new genetic methods and technologies. 'We've already achieved a lot,' said Tran Trung Thanh, a molecular biologist and the lab's deputy director. 'We need more time to apply it in practice.' The main breakthrough occurred a few months before President Donald Trump's inauguration with 23 Vietnamese bone samples degraded by age and tropical conditions. Using chemical solutions and high-tech analysis, scientists from the international commission found that 70% of the samples generated DNA profiles capable of being matched to a parent or child. Several samples generated enough genetic material to connect with a single great-great-grandchild or even a first cousin's child or parent. Before last year, 9 of every 10 Vietnamese bone samples yielded nothing identifiable. 'The breakthrough is the successful implementation in Vietnam of these tools that are emerging from the cutting edge of forensic science, in a context where other methods fail,' Parsons said. Another scientist compared their work to searching for crumbs of a corn flake in a mountain of sand. Duty and Doubts Bob Connor, 78, a chatty Air Force veteran who lives near Philadelphia, signed up to fight Communists as a young man. More recently, he helped find a mass grave for their dead that he had heard about during a tour outside Saigon in 1968. Since 2016, Connor says, he has located around 8,000 unidentified Vietnamese. The official tally of Americans who went missing during the Vietnam War is 2,646. 'The families are the key to the whole thing, from a standpoint that it's no different from our MIAs,' he said. 'Should we walk away from it -- hell no,' he added. 'We owe it to them.' Since President Bill Clinton announced the restoration of diplomatic relations 30 years ago, Vietnam has handed over more than 1,000 sets of American remains. Ambassador Marc Knapper, the son of a Vietnam veteran, has lobbied behind the scenes for the United States to continue supporting Vietnam's MIA program. The International Commission on Missing Persons also wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking that funding be restored. In March, the project received a partial reprieve. U.S. officials told scientists that they would receive the money allotted through the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. A State Department spokesperson said that maintaining 'the right mix of programs to support U.S. national security and other core national interests of the United States requires an agile approach.' Even without such uncertainty, the U.S.-Vietnam relationship has already been battered. Vietnam and the United States on Wednesday reached a preliminary agreement that will add tariffs of 20% to 40% on imports from Vietnam -- a major blow for its economy that follows sharp cuts in foreign aid for health, education and the environment. Trump's approach 'has shaken Vietnamese confidence in the United States,' said Tim Rieser, a former adviser to then-Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a key figure in U.S.-Vietnam reconciliation. 'They have told us the Chinese are already stepping into the vacuum.' Reduced ambitions for partnership with the United States are increasingly the norm. Instead of requesting another five-year grant, the International Commission on Missing Persons has requested $3 million from the United States to keep the project going for 12 to 18 months. 'If we don't receive funding beyond September,' Kathryne Bomberger, the commission's director general, said in an interview, 'the program will probably end.' If that happens, American remains commingled with those of Vietnamese soldiers may never be found, and growth in humanitarian identification will be stunted. Families on the cusp of clarity will remain in limbo for longer, and possibly forever. At the cemetery in the country's north, the scientists soldiered on, maintaining faith in their grisly labor. They had just a few weeks to make an identification, maybe for remains from the 'American War,' maybe from a war against China in 1979. On their final day, a family appeared, laying out fruit and dove-white flowers and lighting incense at the grave of a soldier lucky enough to have been buried with a name. Thanh, the project's deputy director, watched quietly as the scratch of shovels on dirt mingled with birdsong. 'We just want to bring certainty,' Thanh said. 'To give people information they've never had.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Hundreds of motorcyclists undertake the Ride for Freedom
DIMONDALE, Mich. (WLNS) — Hundreds of motorcyclists rode from Dimondale to the State Capitol over the weekend for an event called 'Ride for Freedom,' a nationwide initiative bringing awareness to veterans, prisoners of war, and those who are missing in action. Rolling Thunder hosted the event, and just after noon, the bikers arrived at the Capitol to show the spirit of remembrance and unity. The Veterans Memorial Freedom Ride is a time to honor those who are lost. 'But there's one man here in town, Arthur Wright, disappeared Feb. 21, 1967,' said Doug Pickle, organizer of the event. 'He's still unknown, since then and right up till now, we're still keeping his name out there because he's unaccounted for.' But it goes deeper than that. The event is also an opportunity to hear the stories of those we have lost in the line of duty and a message to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice—that they deserve to heal from the pain of their past. Pickle, the organizer, says the event is designed to educate people about these veterans. 'And this is an area that everybody forgets. Nobody even knows what a POW is, to be honest with you. So, Rolling Thunder is here today,' said Pickle. 'To teach people what our POWs and MIAs, prisoners of war and missing in action, go through—what the families are going through. This is the importance of this rally today and this ride today. We're honoring everybody who's killed in the line of duty.' He also says he wants to give people a way to remember. 'Michigan POW/MIA memorial, and it's going to be in Mount Pleasant, Michigan,' said Pickle. 'It's gonna be every Michigan resident who was ever taken as a prisoner of war or missing in action from the Civil War all the way to present.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Memorial Day ceremony at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens
The 58th annual Memorial Day ceremony at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium on Monday paid tribute to fallen service members with ties to Maryland, honoring U.S. Armed Forces who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of the United States of America. Upon receiving to honor Specialist Jacob W. Mullen who died at 25 years old, his mother Linda Mullen weeps while consoled by Major General Janeen L. Birckhead, Adjutant General of the Maryland National Guard during the annual Memorial Day Observance at the Circle of Immortals, inside Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Ternell Fisher of Towson, retired from the U.S. Navy is silhouetted in front of flags placed on the graves in background while listening to speakers during the annual Memorial Day Observance at the Circle of Immortals, inside Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) A wreath is carried by members with the U.S. Marines to place in honor of Marylanders who died in Vietnam and Iraq who are buried in and around the Circle of the Immortals, and for four Maryland MIAs, during the annual Memorial Day Observance at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Three generations of family sit together, with Margaret Arnold, left reaching out to granddaughter Layomi Adedeji 16, as she lays her head on the shoulder of her mother Nicole Arnold while they honor Army P.F.C. Charles M. Hyman, who died on June 8, 2024 at 33 years old during the annual Memorial Day Observance at the Circle of Immortals, inside Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) A wreath is carried by members with the U.S. Marines to place in honor of Marylanders who died in Vietnam and Iraq who are buried in and around the Circle of the Immortals, and for four Maryland MIAs, during the annual Memorial Day Observance at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Members of the U.S. Marines hold the Colors during the annual Memorial Day Observance at the Circle of Immortals, inside Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Spectators watch the annual Memorial Day Observance at the Circle of Immortals, inside Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Spectators watch a rifle volley during the annual Memorial Day Observance at the Circle of Immortals, inside Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Liam Abbey, 15 of Rising Sun, a member with the u.S. Naval Sea Cadets looks up as the Star-Spangled Banner is played during the annual Memorial Day Observance at the Circle of Immortals, inside Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Linda Willey, a Gold Star Mother accepts the Loved and Lost presentation honoring Staff Sergeant Sean A. Lange, who died on Aug. 25, 2024 which is given by Major General Janeen L. Birkhead, the Adjutant General of the Maryland National Guard during the annual Memorial Day Observance at the Circle of Immortals, inside Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) From left, Jaheim Brown, lower left, Charles Griffin, Tenessa Davenport, Malik Brown and William Brown mourn the loss of Specialist William T. Brown III, who was 30 years old when he died, during the annual Memorial Day Observance at the Circle of Immortals, inside Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) The Colors are carried during the annual Memorial Day Observance at the Circle of Immortals, inside Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Major General Janeen L. Birkhead, the Adjutant General of the Maryland National Guard speaks during the annual Memorial Day Observance at the Circle of Immortals, inside Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Relatives and friends of the ten Marylanders who lost their lives in service to the nation sit together during the annual Memorial Day Observance at the Circle of Immortals, inside Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) A slow shutter speed reveals movement as members of the 229th Army Band play while marching past graves adorned with small flags during the annual Memorial Day Observance at the Circle of Immortals, inside Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Show Caption1 of 16The Colors are advanced past small flags which rise from graves at the annual Memorial Day Observance at the Circle of Immortals, inside Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)Expand
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Washington state mayor blows up on LGBTQ activist who says flying POW/MIA flag is a 'political stunt'
A mayor in Washington state blew up on an LGBTQ activist after she described the city flying the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action flag as a "political stunt" during the public comment portion of the city council meeting on Tuesday. The exchange took place near the end of the Newcastle City Council meeting between Mayor Robert Clark and a woman whose first name is Jen. Newcastle is a suburb of Seattle. Jen was the first person to speak after Clark opened the floor for public comment, and she began by stating she hopes the mayor will support the pride flag "in proclamation this year" since he has a "new-found appreciation" for flags besides the American flag. State Department Blocks Pride, Blm Flags From Embassies, Outposts With 'One Flag Policy' She was referencing a vote by the city council last year to not fly the pride flag over city hall during pride month, which was later flipped after public outrage. At the time, Clark told local outlet KOMO that if the pride flag was going to be flown, then everybody's flag had to be flown. "Do you want a Hamas flag flying over the City of Newcastle? Or a MAGA flag? How about a Trump flag or an Antifa flag? We're not going there folks," Clark stated. "Everybody is equally represented by the American flag." Read On The Fox News App Jen said while she is "very much in support" of veterans, POWs and MIAs, she thinks flying the POW/MIA flag "100 days a year is a political stunt." Jen then began comparing the population of American POWs or MIAs with how many Americans fall under the LGBTQ community, suggesting that the pride flag represents more people. "My research shows that there have been 82,000 Americans who are registered as POWs or MIAs, which is atrocious and horrible, and it should never happen to any American, but there [are] 20 million minimum LGBTQ members," she stated. National Pow/mia Recognition Day Reminds Americans Of 'Nobility' Of War Heroes And The Need To Do Better She then accused council members of being hypocritical and fulfilling special interests by choosing to fly a POW/MIA flag over city hall and not a pride flag. "I think that your approach to trying to trick people out of having to fly the pride flag in June by making sure that the POW/MIA flag was flown is really disgusting. Again, it is not impartial in any way, and I think that you should be ashamed. I definitely am," Jen said before walking off. Her comments set a fire under the mayor, who said he doesn't typically respond to public comment, but he "will not sit here and have somebody tell me that veterans are a political stunt." Some in the audience could be heard clapping as Clark fired back at the woman, adding, "How dare you?" Usaid Employee Says Staffers Hid Pride Flags, 'Incriminating' Books When Doge Arrived "This country was founded because veterans lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands of people died for this country so that you could fly your pride flag," Clark said while looking in her direction. He apologized for being "pissed" and "out of line," but warned her "do not ever disparage veterans in my presence." "Those 82,000 people who never came home will never have a chance to have a family or grow up while you can fly your pride flag," he said. "They sacrificed their lives all over the world for America and for freedom around the world." The mayor appeared to be aware of Jen's opinions, stating that he "tolerates" her comments despite them always being "on the attack" and "libelous." "I tolerate it because, you know, you probably can't help yourself, but don't ever disparage veterans in front of me," he said as someone in the audience could be heard trying to talk back. "Don't ever disparage veterans in front of me," Clark repeated. "And we're done," he said before opening up the floor to the next article source: Washington state mayor blows up on LGBTQ activist who says flying POW/MIA flag is a 'political stunt'
