The war has long been over, but the memory of those still unaccounted for continues to bring US veterans back to Vietnam. They return with old maps, records, and memories, hoping to help heal the wounds of war.
Last month, American veteran Robert Ambrose Connor returned to Vietnam with battlefield records, part of 250 files he and other veterans spent 10 years collecting. Phone calls, emails, and meetings with veterans across the US gathered memories and information that might help recovery teams find missing soldiers.
Connor says, "Read about Vietnam before you come to Vietnam." He believes that understanding the country and its people will help people see why finding those still missing is so important.
"I felt relief that I found the first grave, but then, almost right behind that, I felt the need that there's more out there, and I'm going to look for them," said Connor.
Former pilot Richard W. Magner shares Connor’s goal. For years, he has searched the US National Archives for wartime records. He digitized aerial reconnaissance photos from 35 boxes of film and shared them with Vietnam. The records have helped recovery teams narrow down possible burial sites.
"I've been coming to the archives here. I've been here almost a dozen times in the last 10 years, and I've been working on about 200 sites throughout Vietnam where mass graves are suspected," said Magner.
Time is running out. Veterans and other witnesses on both sides are getting older. If their memories are not recorded today, they will be lost forever. As John Terzano of the Vietnam Veterans Fund once said, "My memories of my first two visits to Vietnam were not pleasant. Memories of war never are. But what I did not know at the time was that I would return to Vietnam many times over the years."
He said that just like his first two visits, every subsequent visit has changed him. "We realized then that although we still had a lot of work to do, we needed to begin the process of reconciliation."
That’s why many US veterans keep coming back to Vietnam. They study military records, revisit old battlefields, and share everything they know. Every set of remains found brings comfort to another family. Every new clue helps bring another fallen soldier home.
A 500-day campaign to recover and identify fallen soldiers, a journey of compassion, cooperation, and reconciliation, is being conducted across Vietnam. People who once fought on opposite sides are working together to bring the fallen home. By doing so, they’re turning a painful past into a shared commitment to the future.
