April 28, 2025

Mentorship Shapes First Field Mission for DPAA Forensic Anthropologist

QUẢNG TRỊ, Vietnam — After spending years in laboratories and archaeological digs across the globe — from a post-classic Mayan town in Belize to colonial cemeteries in Mississippi, this year marked a new kind of fieldwork for a seasoned scientist: her first full recovery mission with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. After joining DPAA in late 2024, forensic anthropologist Dr. Larkin F. Kennedy was quickly deployed to Quảng Trị province, Vietnam, for 2 months in the beginning of 2025 with a small team of service members and civilians. They worked as one of five recovery teams sent out with the second mission to Vietnam in fiscal year 2025, in hopes of finding remains of U.S. personnel from the Vietnam War.