Baltimore Native Searches for America’s Missing Service Members
LANG SON, VIETNAM
Story by Staff Sgt. Rusty Frank
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
HONOLULU, HAWAII—U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Cedric Johnson, a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) recovery team noncommissioned officer, recently joined a recovery team in search of a missing U.S. service member lost during the Vietnam War in Lang Son Province, Vietnam.
Johnson, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, volunteered to help DPAA fulfill its mission to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and the nation.
“DPAA’s mission is very important to me, because it provides answers to the families that lost loved ones during certain wars,” Johnson said. “I was very honored to be a part of this mission… to me it brings substance to being in service… it brings a good feeling knowing you are trying to help these families get the answers they are looking for.”
For more than two decades the U.S. has conducted joint field activities with the governments of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to recover the remains of missing Americans. Throughout these countries, field teams continue to investigate crash and burial sites, as well as interview locals to gain additional knowledge and build relations.
Johnson said one of his best memories while on mission was being a little competitive with local Vietnamese locals while digging a unit. He added this competitiveness also helped build a partnership between the local Vietnamese community and the recovery team.
“The locals we had, we had a very mutual understanding with each other,” said Johnson. “We built really strong relationships within the team, and we were all happy to work with each other. Because they know the land, and they knew how to maneuver around things we wouldn’t have known.”
DPAA’s mission is to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and the nation. When American personnel remain unaccounted-for at the conclusion of hostilities, the DoD personnel accounting community becomes the responsible agent for identifying and accounting for the missing.
For more information about DPAA or Cpl. Johnson, visit www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, or call Lt. Col. Ken Hoffman at 808-255-4078
