The first (to our knowledge) III-V mid-IR vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (lambda = 2.9 microm) are demonstrated and show promising characteristics for chemical detection applications. The cw optical-pumping threshold is low (4 mW at 80 K) and efficiency is high (5.6% W/W). Pulsed operation is obtained up to 280 K and cw up to 160 K. Lateral-mode confinement will lead to spectrally pure, single-mode output for chemical identification.