US Vietnam veterans send home fallen comrades

US Vietnam veterans send home fallen comrades
By Ian Timberlake – 16 hours ago

DANANG, Vietnam (AFP) — Standing to attention in the hot sun, a Marines baseball cap over his heart, US veteran Alan Segal watched as an honour guard carried the flag-draped coffins of his fellow servicemen onto an Air Force plane, taking them home 34 years after the Vietnam War ended.

Beside him another US veteran of the Vietnam conflict, Rick Janovick, 58, saluted fellow servicemen whose names he did not even know.

Segal and Janovick, who have chosen to live where they once fought, were among dozens who witnessed Wednesday's repatriation ceremony which came as the US and Vietnam step up cooperation in the hunt for missing servicemen.

Among the guests were crew from the USNS Bruce C. Heezen, the first US Navy ship to join the search effort. The ship has just completed a 12-day survey for missing American aircraft in waters off central and south-central Vietnam.

The two sets of remains sent home on Wednesday came from the land but US officials hoped the Heezen's involvement would speed up the search for underwater sites, meaning the remains of airmen still missing at sea could, in the future, also be repatriated with dignity.

Since Vietnam and the US began cooperating more than 20 years ago in the search for the remains of missing US servicemen, more than 600 have been repatriated but about 1,300 are still unaccounted for in Vietnam, the US says.
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US Vietnam veterans send home fallen comrades