Son Flies Father’s Remains Home 52 Years After He Was Shot Down Over Vietnam
When he was just 5 years old Bryan Knight said goodbye to his father, Air Force Col. Roy A. Knight Jr., at Dallas Love Field Airport. Yesterday, 52 years later, Byran now a Southwest Airlines pilot flew his fathers remains back to the same airport.
Knight was just 36 when he was shot down while attacking a target on the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos on May 19,1967, according to White’s Funeral Home in Weatherford, Texas. He went missing in action when his jet was shot down and burst into flames on May 19, 1967. No one reported seeing a parachute get deployed before the crash at the time, and that September, Knight’s father was declared dead by the Air Force.
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, in 1991 and 1992, Joint U.S./Lao People’s Democratic Republic (L.P.D.R.) teams investigated a crash site allegedly associated with Knight’s loss, recommending it for excavation. In March 1994, the site was excavated and life support items were recovered. The crash site was investigated four additional times in subsequent years. In January and February 2019, a joint team recovered possible human remains and additional life support items. To identify Knight’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental analysis, as well as material and circumstantial evidence.
As Col. Knights plane arrived the airport fell silent and ground crews stood at attention showing respect for the fallen hero finally returning home. Canadian journalist Jackson Proskow, who happened to be waiting at the gate where Knight’s plane was arriving said, “They announced it over the intercom. The gate agent was very emotional as he told the story over the PA,” Proskow wrote, adding that American flags were handed out to everyone at the gate".
Funeral services with full military honors will be held this Saturday the obituary said.
Welcome home sir and thank you for your service.