CAMP H.M. SMITH, Hawaii - The remains of seven servicemen and nine Vietnamese who were on board a Vietnamese military helicopter when it crashed in Vietnam Saturday, were taken Sunday to a hospital in Hanoi for identification.
Vietnamese and U.S. officials, including Pete Peterson, U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, were in Hanoi to honor the arrival of the remains of those killed in the accident.
The names of the servicemen will not be released until positive identification has been completed.
Also killed in the crash were two members of the Vietnamese Office of Seeking Missing Persons, the Vietnamese agency that assists Joint Task Force Full Accounting in its investigation and recovery efforts in Vietnam. Additionally, three Vietnamese aircrew members and four aircraft technicians were lost.
In remarks Sunday, U.S. Ambassador Peterson recognized the positive involvement of the Vietnamese government in the recovery operations, and the sense of shared grief between our two governments over this tragedy.
The accident remains under investigation.
