Joint Task Force -- Full Accounting (JTF-FA)


This gallery is dedicated to the men and women of the Joint Task Force--Full Accounting. The mission of this organization is to work with members of the Government of Vietnam to locate, indentify, and return the remains of missing U.S. personnel

The "business end" of the JTF-FA are small teams consisiting of U.S. military and contract personnel. The members of these teams are experts in various specialties, including ordnance disposal, forensics, survey, geology, and other technical areas. These teams link up with local Vietnamese officials and military personnel and conduct extensive searches of battlefields, crash sites, and other areas where U.S. personnel were lost.

These teams often work under very strenuous and dangerous conditions. Many of the aircraft crash sites are located in remote, mountainous terrain. Not all of the natives are friendly, and unexploded ordnance exists in great quantities. The reader will gain a little appreciation of the conditions facing these teams by reading the reports and looking at the pictures within this gallery.

The JTF-FA has an extensive and growing body of information related to U.S. personnel missing or killed in action, bodies not recovered. Much of this information is in the public domain. There are sensitive issues and areas that still remain classified. For reasons of protecting their personal privacy the names of many of the JTF-FA team members are not made public.


"The Long Journey Home" An excellent diary by Dave Demsey as he joined a JTF-FA team in the A Shau Valley to try and locate the remains of his brother, Walter Demsey

Dave's photos of the trip and JTF-FA team, including several maps "tell it all".

"For Those Who Cannot" chronicles a JTF-FA mission to locate the remains of Dennis Hammond, USMC. These accounts were provided by his dear friend, Mike "Tiny" Readinger

"Party Line One" These are the reports of several JTF-FA teams that have tried to find the remains of three members of USMC reconnaissance team "Party Line One", killed in the A Shau on 3 August, 1967.

Provided to Bill McBride by Mr. John Nahan, who's son John III was one of those killed. Bill McBride was the patrol leader of Party Line One.


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