For the second time since February, the ripple effects of the Iran war have spread to Laos, where fuel shortages have forced the cancellation or curtailment of searches by U.S recovery teams for the remains of troops missing-in-action from the so-called “secret war” in the Southeast Asia nation.
In a release last week, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said, “Due to significant impacts resulting from fuel shortages in Laos, DPAA was forced to cancel four recovery teams that were planned for April 27 through June 10.”
The cancellation followed actions taken by DPAA earlier this year on operations in Laos, when “four recovery teams had to curtail operations by 10 days for the Feb. 28-April 6 mission due to insufficient fuel supplies,” DPAA said in the release.
In addition, DPAA plans for other recovery operations last year, both in Laos and Vietnam, were canceled for lack of funding after Congress failed to appropriate the money because of the partial government shutdown over operations of the Department of Homeland Security and the funding of health insurance subsidies.
“Due to the lapse of appropriations, DPAA has been forced to cancel its Joint Field Activities (JFA) in Vietnam and Laos that were planned for late October through early December,” DPAA said in a release last November.
In one of his quarterly updates in January to families and veterans groups, DPAA Director Kelly McKeague, a retired Air Force major general, warned that DPAA this year was being asked to do more with less as a result of budget cuts.
For Fiscal Year 2026, which began last Oct. 1, “you will recall that DPAA’s appropriation will be $171.3 million, which is an 11% reduction as a result of [Department of Defense] budget adjustments,” McKeague said.
When asked at the same meeting what the impact of the budget cuts would be on operations in Laos and Vietnam, Navy Capt. Meghan Bodnar, the DPAA deputy director, said, “The Vietnam War continues to be our number one operational priority, so the budget cuts will be spread proportionally across all missions and will reduce more Vietnam War field missions from being deployed.”
“We entered FY 2026 with the intent to field 66 field missions, compared to 105 deployed in FY2025, due to the reduced budget,” Bodnar added, noting that DPAA had already decided to reduce operations in Laos even before the fuel crisis began.
Some of the investigative work would continue in Laos, Bodnar said, but the main operations of the “RTs,” or Recovery Teams, “must be deferred” to the next fiscal year.
All of the nations of Southeast Asia have been hit hard by the blockades of the Straits of Hormuz, resulting in a cutoff of 20% of the world’s oil supply, but Laos is a particular case.
Laos has no oil of its own and depends on supply from Thailand, which has its own fuel crisis. The U.S. has yet to offer any help in easing that crisis, Thailand’s Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow told the Washington Post in an April 27 interview.
“I think they’re aware that there are consequences from the war,” Sihasak said in the interview, referring to the Trump administration, “but they haven’t come out to talk to us about how they can help.”
The legacy of U.S. involvement in Laos, in what was called the “secret war,” stemmed from the massive bombing campaigns and paramilitary operations carried out by the CIA from 1964-1973, operations that violated Laos’ neutrality while missions were hidden from the public and Congress.
According to DPAA, about 288 U.S. troops are still unaccounted for in Laos and more than 1,500 in Vietnam.
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