News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Another Detour

Date: September 16, 2001

"Attack Delays Return of Vet's Remains

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) - It took 34 years for the remains of an Air Force pilot shot down in Vietnam to be returned to the Air Force Academy, and the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington caused more of a delay.

The remains of Maj. Victor Apodaca Jr., a 1961 academy graduate, were identified at the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, and his family decided to hold a memorial at the academy this weekend because it was the 40th reunion of Apodaca's class.

One of his sons, Robert Apodaca of Orlando, Fla., brought the remains from Hawaii on a commercial flight, but shortly after the plane landed in Minneapolis early Tuesday all flights were grounded because of the terrorist attacks.

Robert Apodaca noticed a Minneapolis Air National Guard Unit nearby so he called the academy for help.

His phone rang at 3 a.m. Thursday. ``They said `Be on the flight line at 7 a.m. Your dad is going home,''' Apodaca said.

An honor guard was waiting later Thursday when he and his father's remains arrived at Peterson Air Force Base aboard a military plane.

On Saturday, Victor Apodaca's remains were laid to rest in the academy cemetery in a ceremony attended by members of the cadet 10th Squadron, the one Apodaca was in when he graduated. "