Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency recovery team members watch as Capt. Kyle Meariman, DPAA team leader and Nguyen Hong Trung, Vietnam Office for Seeking Missing Persons (VNOSMP) team leader, remove the first shovels of soil from a unit during a recovery mission, Nghệ An Province, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Feb. 26, 2023. Since Vietnamese troops occupied large portions of Cambodia and Laos where Americans went missing during the War, the U.S. asks Vietnamese veterans and civilians to cooperate in our operations in the two countries. Since 1973, the remains of more than 1,000 Americans killed during the Vietnam War have been identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honors. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency tirelessly continues the search for the remaining 1,241 missing in action service members, in order to provide fullest possible accounting for our missing and unaccounted-for U.S. personnel to their families and the nation. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Cole Yardley