Hanoi: More than half a century after the war ended, Vietnam is still searching for around 175,000 fallen soldiers whose remains have yet to be found. Another 300,000 sets of remains have been recovered but yet to be identified, leaving countless families waiting for the day they can finally bring their loved ones home. To accelerate progress, the national steering committee for the search, recovery, and identification of fallen soldiers' remains launched the 500-day campaign on April 2, 2026. Running from March 15, 2026, to July 27, 2027, the campaign aims to intensify efforts nationwide. According to Vietnam News Agency, rather than simply an administrative initiative, the campaign targets recovering approximately 7,000 sets of fallen soldiers' remains and conducting DNA analysis on around 18,000 remains samples. Alongside search and recovery operations, collecting samples from both remains and relatives has become a key task in DNA-based identification.