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The Vietnam-Era Prisoner-of-War/Missing-in-Action Database

Subject: Vietnam-Era Unaccounted for Statistical Report

CURRENT AS OF: February 27, 1997

1. BACKGROUND: The Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Service, and the Department of State report the current numbers of Americans who are unaccounted for in Southeast Asia: 

Figure 1 
AMERICANS UNACCOUNTED FOR IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
COMPONENT                                      COUNTRY OF LOSS

  NORTH 
VIETNAM
SOUTH 
VIETNAM
LAOS CAMBODIA CHINA TOTALS
ARMY 10 503 110 36 0 659
NAVY 289 94 31 2 8 424
MARINE 
CORPS
31 205 22 14 0 272
AIR FORCE 252 181 279 19 0 731
COAST 
GUARD
0 1 0 0 0 1
CIVILIANS 0 23 13 5 0 41
             
TOTALS 582 1007 455 76 8 2128*

* INCLUDES 470 AT SEA/OVER WATER LOSSES 
 

2. U.S. GOVERNMENT EFFORTS: Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, the U.S. Government has acquired 19853 reports pertaining to Americans in Southeast Asia: 


Figure 2
SUMMARY OF REPORTS

FIRSTHAND LIVE SIGHTINGS 1844
HEARSAY SIGHTINGS REPORTS 4166
CRASH/GRAVESITES 4729
DOGTAGS 9114
   
Total 19853

a. Of the 1844 firsthand reports received since 1975, 1758(96%) reports are resolved. 

    -- 1236(67%) reports were equated to Americans who are accounted for (i.e., PW returnees, missionaries, civilians jailed at various times for violation of Vietnamese codes). 
    -- 45(3%) reports were correlated to wartime sightings of military personnel or pre-1975 sighting of civilians who remain unaccounted for. 
    -- 477(26%) reports were determined to be fabrications. 

b. The remaining 86(4%) unresolved firsthand reports represent the focus of the U.S. Government's analytical and collection efforts: 

    -- 69(3%) pertain to Americans reported in a captive environment. 
    -- 17(1%) reported sightings of Americans in a non-captive environment (i.e. working as truck drivers; married with a Vietnamese family). 

c. The following timeline presents an overview of unresolved firsthand sightings by the year of the sighting: 

Figure 3. 
TIMELINE: UNRESOLVED LIVE SIGHTING REPORTS

Pre-76 76-80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88
62 13 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2

 
89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 Total
1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 86

3. ACCOUNTING FOR U.S. PERSONNEL: The Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii, reports that since 1973, the U.S. has accounted for 455 Americans from Southeast Asia. 

Figure 4 
AMERICANS ACCOUNTED FOR POST-1973

VIETNAM 337*
CHINA 2**
LAOS 111
CAMBODIA 5
   
TOTAL 455***

NOTES
*      31 remains from the Official Died in Captivity Lists provided by the Vietnamese in 1973 
**    2  ashes returned from China 
***  4  remains were recovered and turned over to the U.S. by indigenous personnel; 1 from North Vietnam and 3 from Laos. They are included in the country count.

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