MIA searchers head for Asia

Advertiser Staff

Military specialists soon will depart Hickam Air Force Base for Vietnam on a 30-day mission to search for remains of American servicemen still unaccounted for since the end of the Vietnam War.

On Thursday, team members will be joined by counterparts from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to begin work on joint investigations and recovery operations in 12 Vietnamese provinces.

An investigative team, research investigation team and six recovery teams will participate in the effort. At six primary sites, teams are scheduled to investigate up to 16 cases involving servicemen who are still unaccounted for.

In addition, the research investigation team will look into as many as six "last known alive" cases.

As many as 95 specialists — most of them based here with Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, the Army's Central Identification Laboratory and Joint Field Operating Base Hawai'i — will participate in the 30-day mission.

Participants belong to the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, and some are Department of Defense civilian employees. The research investigation team com-

prises representatives from the Defense Intelligence Agency based at Hickam and members of the Joint Task Force.

For security reasons, the date of departure is not being released.