Written by Bob Connor

VBC veteran Bob Connor served with the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam War and has been assisting the Vietnamese government with locating and identifying Vietnamese remains (as well as US remains) buried in unmarked mass graves throughout the country. The driving factor behind Bob’s and other veterans’ work is seeing the emotional impact of the situation on the families of the missing soldiers. Vietnam TV 4 (VTV4) aired a 45 minute documentary on the efforts of US Vietnam veterans to help Vietnamese families get reunited with remains of loved ones. You can view the documentary above–in English–and read Bob’s note about the piece below.

Rich Magner and I did this interview with Vietnam TV news just prior to leaving Vietnam after being there for two weeks. We met with several different Provincial and District Officers to present detailed information on 20 mass graves sites.

While at each Provence and District, we also visited some of the specific battle sites and or graves areas yet to be excavated.

All of the individual grave detail we’ve provided to Vietnam to date has been with the help of our US Veterans who are willing and able to help us pinpoint all of these graves.

The total former enemy losses exceeds 8,000 for these 20 sites. At the Bien Hoa Air Base alone, where I witnessed the Tet 1968 attack, the six mass graves account for 1,600 remains. Vietnam’s Missing in Action exceeds 200,000.

At each of the Provincial offices, we provided detailed grave site locations priority sequence.

No different than our own MIA families, their families as well are still waiting over 50 years, not knowing.

Please do pass this to any US Vietnam veteran. I can assure the veteran, when the grave is found and excavated, and the remains reburied, you will feel the emotion and know your contribution helped put a positive end to an ugly war . . . for both the families and yourself.

As word has spread about these excavations, we get former VC, NVA soldiers as well as citizens, to come forward and provide new details about our own MIAs.

Our humanitarian-volunteer process works both ways.

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