The conference, organized by the Military Zone 7 Steering Committee for the Search, Recovery and Identification of Fallen Soldiers' Remains, reviewed progress made in the first half of 2026 and outlined priorities for the remainder of the year.
During the first six months of 2026, Military Zone 7 recovered 814 sets of fallen soldiers' remains, including 211 in Vietnam and 603 in Cambodia. Of the total, 584 sets were recovered during the ongoing 500-Day Campaign between March 15 and July 29, comprising 191 recovered domestically and 393 in Cambodia.
Addressing the conference, Lieutenant General Tran Vinh Ngoc, Political Commissar of Military Zone 7, called for wider use of modern technology to improve the collection and processing of information for search operations.
He urged relevant units to focus on researching major battles and military campaigns where large numbers of troops were killed, review records of wartime hospitals and field medical stations in southeastern Vietnam to identify potential burial sites, verify information on fallen soldiers, expand the use of digital data management, and accelerate the collection, digitization and transfer of biological samples from unidentified remains for DNA testing.
As of July 29, Military Zone 7 had completed more than 74.7% of its planned sampling and digitization work and aims to finish the process by September 2026, ahead of the schedule set by the National Steering Committee.
