Associated Press
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - About two dozen relatives will pay their last respects next week to a Navy pilot shot down over Vietnam in 1972, who was recently declared dead though no body was ever found.
An empty casket will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors for Cmdr. Thomas Earl Dunlop. DunlopÕs A-7E Corsair II was shot down over a remote area of Vietnam.
An official report concluded that a crash site excavated by a team of investigators definitely contained the wreckage of the plane Dunlop was flying, said his sister, Gail Hull-Ryde of Jacksonville. He was the only pilot in an A-7E Corsair II in the area at the time the plane was shot down in April 1972.
No body was found but he was declared dead after remnants of his clothing were identified.
"We're happy there is this final closure, after so many years of nothing," Hull-Ryde said.
Three of Dunlop's four children will attend MondayÕs ceremony.
The Pentagon's POW-MIA Joint Accounting Command estimates 1,800 men are still missing in Vietnam.
©2004 The Associated Press