By Ismail Turay Jr.
Dayton Daily News
DAYTON - More than three decades after he was shipped off to Vietnam, Army Capt. David Smith returned home.
On Wednesday, his partial remains were buried with military honors at the Dayton National Cemetery, bringing closure for a family which has grieved for more than 36 years.
"He's now in Dayton where he belongs. His remains were in the ground in Vietnam, but he's now home," niece Darlene Grice said. Grice was 13 when her uncle placed on her finger a friendship ring ÑÊwhich she still wears - days before he left for his second tour in Vietnam.
"We needed to have closure. It was final today, and that's why it's very hard on all of us," she said.
Nearly 100 friends, relatives, officials, including Rep. Mike Turner, and local veterans groups gathered under a tent for the service. Soldiers from Fort Knox, Ky., acted as pallbearers and played taps. An honor guard of seven Army riflemen fired the traditional three volleys.
Meanwhile, a yellow T-28 plane from Waynesville and an Ohio National Guard Huey helicopter flew overhead "to show their respects to a fellow pilot."
"We came to help put him to rest. We owe that to him and all MIAs," said George Downing of Lima and a member of Chained Eagles of Ohio, a motorcycle group of veterans whose mission is to help raise money to search for troops who are missing in action.
"We need a full account of our MIAs and
we need to (remind) people ... so they don't forget," he said, adding that more than 1,800 American troops who fought in the Vietnam War remain listed as missing in action.
Smith and four others died March 16, 1969, when the U-21A Ute aircraft they were flying in crashed into a mountain in South Vietnam. He was 30.
Soon after the crash, the military combed the area for the plane and its crew for eight days before ending the search. Smith was officially declared dead in 1973.
The Vietnamese government in 1988 and 1989 turned over to U.S. officials boxes with Smith and others' remains, including dog tags, but positive identification was not possible at the time.
Recently, through DNA, the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office identified Smith's remains - a shoulder and two arm bones. Government officials first alerted the family of the positive identification June 22, Grice said.
"It's a pleasure for us to finally put him to rest," said Robert Smith, David's older brother who now lives in Florida. "Until 10 years ago, I thought he was going to come walking through the door."
Robert Smith, 75, an Air Force veteran, said he placed a toy airplane under David Smith's pillow when they were children in hopes that his brother would become a pilot.
The elder Smith wanted to place another toy airplane in his brother's casket, but he was not allowed to do so. Instead, he will give the toy plane to his 4-year-old grandson, he said.
Two days before his death, Smith was scheduled to return home to watch another niece, Betty Boisel, now a New Holland resident, graduate from high school.
"He's just a little late," a teary-eyed Boisel, 54, said after the funeral service. "But he's finally home."
Contact Ismail Turay Jr. at (937) 225-2295
©2005 Cox Ohio Publishing, Dayton, Ohio, USA