Story highlights In 1984, Bill Gadoury joined the U.S. Embassy in Laos with the task of finding U.S. airmen who are missing in action

His team has identified the remains of 271 airmen, but 302 are still unaccounted for

Vientiane, Laos (CNN) For 45 years, Bill Gadoury has been looking for answers.

During the Vietnam War, Gadoury served for a year in Thailand and then moved to Laos to help brief commanders about pilots and crew members who never returned from their missions. In 1984, he joined the U.S. Embassy in Laos with the task of finding U.S. airmen who are missing in action.

On Monday, he was recognized by Secretary of State John Kerry, also a Vietnam War veteran, for dedicating his life to searching for the remains of U.S. servicemen who were never recovered.

Today he leads three teams, 58 people all, looking for remains -- a much smaller contingent than is looking for those MIA in Vietnam. It is painstaking work excavating wartime crash sites, often in dangerous terrain, before identifying and repatriating remains back to the U.S.

Gadoury last saw Kerry 24 years ago when he testified before the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, which Kerry used to co-chair along with Arizona Sen. John McCain, who was himself a prisoner of war during Vietnam. The panel was convened under President George H.W. Bush to investigate the fate of U.S. service personnel listed as missing in action.

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