JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- About two dozen family members of a Navy pilot shot down over Vietnam 33 years ago will pay their last respects at Arlington National Cemetery next week, burying an empty casket with full military honors.
Cmdr. Thomas Earl Dunlop's A-7E Corsair II was shot down over a remote area of Vietnam in 1972. His wingman reported seeing him gunned down, but did not see a parachute. The remains of his plane stayed hidden until several years ago and was conclusively identified a few months ago.
The Jacksonville pilot had been listed as missing in action until some remnants of his clothing from the wreckage were identified and he was declared dead.
"We're happy there is this final closure, after so many years of nothing," said his sister, Gail Hull-Ryde of Jacksonville.
Three of Dunlop's four children will attend Monday's ceremonies, which will include a Navy band and a rifle salute.
Hull-Ryde said the official report concludes that the crash site excavated by a team of investigators is definitely the wreckage of the plane Dunlop was flying. Dunlop was the only pilot in an A-7E Corsair II in the area then. Combined with other information from the crash site, that information allowed investigators to conclude the pilot had been killed.
It has taken a recovery team several years of work to make a definite identification. They found a shoe, a 1954 penny and a crater where the engine was. They did not find a body.
Dunlop enlisted in the Navy in 1952 after graduating from Fletcher High School and attending two years of school at the University of Florida. Within months of attaining the rank of captain, Dunlop was shot down on April 6, 1972.
The Pentagon's POW-MIA Joint Accounting Command estimates 1,800 men are still missing in Vietnam.
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