ALBERTVILLE, Ala. -- For the Ard family in Albertville, the long waiting has ended.
Emmie Ard has a set of fine china in her dining room that her son, Randy, sent while he was flying Army helicopters in South Vietnam. It was delivered the day after Ard and her family were told that 20-year-old Randy was missing in action after his helicopter was shot down over Laos on March 7, 1971.
For 34 years, the china set has never been used.
Now after more than three decades of waiting, Randy Ard's family knows without a doubt that he never left Southeast Asia and died at the hands of enemy soldiers in the jungle.
His remains were identified in December by a special Army lab in Hawaii and the family learned the results in January. The news brought the Ards some relief at last.
Randy Ard will be buried March 19 at the Marshall Memorial Gardens during a family ceremony.
Emmie Ard says her son dreamed of flying and wanted to be a pilot most of his life.
Randy went through flight training in 1970 at Fort Rucker in South Alabama, and soon found himself flying helicopters in Vietnam.
His helicopter went down in Laos just across the Vietnam-Laos border, in the village of Ban Kahn.
©2005 by The Associated Press