Maine native searches for America’s missing service members

LANG SON , VIETNAM

12.17.2019

Story by Staff Sgt. Rusty Frank 

Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

HONOLULU, HAWAII—U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Aliah Reyes, 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.

Reyes, a native of Eliot, Maine, volunteered to help DPAA fulfill its mission to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and the nation.

“That is exactly what we are here to do,” said Reyes. “[it’s] what we are all striving to find, finding those human remains and bringing our service members home.”

Reyes said the most memorable moment for her, while on mission was finding that first piece of aircraft wreckage, to her it made the experience real.

“At first we were finding little white pebbles,” she said. “I thought every white rock might have been something. But then after we started finding real pieces [of aircraft]. It started making feel good about why I’m here and what we are here to do. It just kind of made the mission come alive after we started finding pieces.”

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.

News media looking for more information about DPAA or Master Sgt. Reyes, visit www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, or email Lt. Col. Ken Hoffman
at [e-mail].

• Date Taken: 12.17.2019
• Date Posted: 12.17.2019 21:10
• Story ID: 356112
• Location: LANG SON , VN