When the Vietnam War ended in 1973, there were 2,583 Americans unaccounted for. Today, there are still over 2,000 unaccounted for from the war in Vietnam, but about 500 of those are believed missing in Laos and Cambodia due to our involvement there.  There are approximately 1,500 soldiers unaccounted for in Vietnam.  As of July 1999, 526 Americans have been recovered, identified, and returned to their families-
388 of them from Vietnam.  The United States government continues to try to find or account for every person who served in Vietnam.

Special forensic teams have been permitted to operate in Vietnam and extensive excavations have been conducted on the battle field and at air crash sites.  This humanitarian cooperation between the United States and Vietnam has helped families of soldiers who were killed bring some sense of closure to their suffering.  It has also helped bring an end to hostile relations between the two countries.  Since Vietnam began supporting U.S. efforts to account for its soldiers, the United States has dropped its objection to lending to Vietnam, and in 1994 President Clinton removed the American trade embargo on Vietnam.

In war, it is simply impossible to account for every person who served, but efforts continue out of kind humanitarian concern for the families.  The bodies of pilots and crew members who crash into mountains oftentimes explode and burn making it virtually impossible to identify them.  Some soldiers are hit by bombs, others drown, and some reported prisoners of war were apparently transferred to the Soviet Union and executed.

Scientific advances in DNA identification help with the identification of remains, but remains are especially difficult to find in Vietnam due to its climate, which has a natural effect of increasing the rate of decay.  Sometimes the military will find wallets, class rings, or other personal effects near a known crash site, but even this evidence is not enough for families to accept the finality of the life of a lost loved one.

The accounting of men and women who served in Vietnam is the best in American and probably world history.  Consider the following comparison to other wars:
 

  
 *Statistics vary a little from report to report.
In 1984, in an effort to bring national closure to the Vietnam War and honor all those who remained missing, the United States government buried the remains of an unidentified soldier in the Tomb of the Unknown in Arlington National Cemetery.
While the remains were officially listed as unknown, there was some conflicting information that they might belong to Michael Blassie, an Air Force pilot who crashed in 1972.  The family was left wondering and prevailed upon the government to use its modern scientific advances for identification.  In 1998 the remains, which represented just 3% of the skeleton, were exhumed and further DNA and forensic tests were performed.  The tests, along with evidence found from the crash site in South Vietnam, confirmed the remains were of 24-year old Michael Blassie.

Michael Blassie was buried in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri on July 11, 1998.  "He was good at everything he tried to do," said his mother, Jean Blassie.  Some people felt the Blassy family should have left the remains in the Tomb of the Unknown, but his brother, George Blassie, said "He was a mentor. He was a hero. He deserves to be known."

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier contains the remains of unknown servicemen from World War I, World War II, and Korea.  Due to the Blassie case and scientific advances with DNA identification, it is very unlikely another set of remains will ever be buried in the Tomb.

Over the years there have been over 1,800 reported live sightings of Americans in Vietnam. All have been investigated with most proving to be POWs who had already been returned, Europeans or Americans living in Vietnam, etc.  Many cases of sightings were proven to be fabrications, and others were either too vague or are under investigation.

The United States continues its efforts to find and identify all remaining unaccounted for servicemen, spending about $50 million per year.

The names of those who served in Vietnam but remain missing are on the Vietnam Memorial Wall and are marked with a cross +.  Once found and identified, a circle is placed around the cross.