Ceremonial Exchange of Possible WWII Remains

PORT VILA, Vanuatu (July 17, 2024) U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Asuncion, right, the Senior U.S. Official in Vanuatu, shakes hands with Chief August, Chairman of the Vanuatu National Cultural Council, after presenting a ceremonial mat during a ceremonial exchange of possible human remains attended by representatives from the Australian High Commission in Vanuatu, The Vanuatu Mobile Force, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, USAID, and servicemembers assigned to Pacific Partnership 24-2 at the Efate Port Vila War Memorial in Port Vila, Vanuatu. July 17, 2024. The possible human remains evidence were recovered from a U.S. Navy PBY-5 Catalina that crashed in what is now the Republic of Vanuatu during World War II. The DPAA mission is to search for, find and account for missing Defense Department personnel from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War and other recent conflicts. More than 82,000 Americans remain missing from those conflicts, with 34,000 believed to be recoverable, according to DPAA. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Ryan D. McLearnon.)

Date

2024-07-16

Photographer / author

U.S. Navy C-LGWP by Petty Officer 1st Class Ryan McLearnon

Archive

Wikimedia Commons

Type

photograph

Original size

6,720 × 4,480 pixels

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