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The sweat drenched our clothes from the hot, humid Vietnamese
weather; our shovels breached the earth’s surface excavating the
ground and placing it into buckets to be screened as we searched for
one of our own.
When U.S. service members die, one of the
more common places people relate it to is the Arlington Cemetery.
What people may not think about is, ‘what happens to those who die
during a conflict and are unable to return home?’ Those service
members will typically be buried where they die or at a grave site
within the ‘host’ country.
I had been chosen to work with the
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency as a photographer to document our
work and take the necessary pictures throughout the mission to help
the anthropologist complete his job.
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June 3, 2017 - Members of the 17-3VM Recovery Team, deployed by
Defense POW/MIA Accountability Agency (DPAA), excavate soil from a
unit as part of a recovery mission in Phuoc Son providence, Vietnam.
Since 1973, the remains of more than 1,000 Americans killed in the
Vietnam War have been identified and returned to their families for
a proper burial with full military honors. (U.S. Air Force photo by
Staff Sgt. David Owsianka)
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DPAA members work towards providing the fullest possible
accountability for our missing service members to their families and
the nation.
In order to meet their goal of finding service
members who died in various conflicts we (the United States) have
been involved throughout the world, teams of military personnel will
travel to various locations within the conflict regions to locate
and identify the personnel to give them a proper burial.
A
few days after arriving in Vietnam, I got my first view of the
insect and leach infested mountain side of where I would be working
for the next five weeks. It was split into two sections; the top
half was on almost at a 40 degree angle, and the bottom half was
flat with numerous trees throughout.
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June 6, 2017 - U.S. service members work alongside Vietnamese
personnel to place sandbags on the edge of a tarp to keep the soil
inside of excavated units dry in Phuoc Son providence, Vietnam, June
6, 2016. The mission of DPAA is to provide the fullest possible
accounting for our missing personnel to their families and their
nation. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. David Owsianka)
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The leaches and weather made it difficult, at times, to
focus solely on my job. Luckily, we had some Vietnamese
locals to help us with the process.
We began our work by setting up our screening stations to
separate the dirt from possible aircraft parts, bones, and other
clues that would lead us to the soldier. Once completed, our
anthropologist set up the areas for us to excavate the dirt.
We had multiple personnel digging at any given moment with a
line of people transporting buckets of dirt to the screening
stations to look through it. Upon finding anything that could be
aircraft parts or bones we would place them in buckets to be looked
at to ensure we were searching in the right direction.
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May 21, 2017 - U.S. service members work alongside Vietnamese
personnel to screen excavated soil as they search for a fallen
service member from the Vietnam War in Phuoc Son providence, Vietnam
. The mission of DPAA is to provide the fullest possible accounting
for our missing personnel to their families and their nation. (U.S.
Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. David Owsianka)
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I took pictures of the overall area, each section we dug,
people digging, personnel sorting through the dirt, aircraft
parts we found, and any other found evidentiary parts while
digging and sorting through dirt myself.
Throughout the course of our mission, I along with the other
service members were able to interact with the local workers. Even
though the language barrier made it difficult for us to properly
communicate with each other, we still were able to build a bond with
the Vietnamese people we worked with.
As we closed the last
unit of dirt we searched through, we excavated 9,728 cubic meters of
earth where we discovered a multitude of aircraft wreckage and
possible material evidence that led us closer to finding our long
lost service member.
The soldier we hoped to bring home died
in 1968 during the Vietnam War as the helicopter he flew on was shot
down causing it to crash. ‘This unfortunately led to those on board
to lose their lives.’ The three other U.S. service members on board
were recovered, identified after the crash, and their bodies were
returned home.
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May 24, 2017 - U.S. Army Sgt. Christopher Ausborn, a recovery
non-commissioned officer with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
(DPAA) screens soil for possible evidence during a DPAA mission to
recover fallen service members from the Vietnam War in Khammouan
Province, Laos. The mission of DPAA is to provide the fullest
possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and
to the nation. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by MCIPAC Combat Camera
Lance Cpl. Brooke Deiters)
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It was a very humbling experience as I helped search for
a fallen service member on the Vietnam mountain side and I
hope the work we did will help the next team find him. It
also gave me an insight of what he and those who served
alongside him endured during the war 50 years ago.
By U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. David Owsianka
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2017
Honoring The Fallen
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Don't Weep For Me |
Tears For Your Fallen
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