GLEN CARBON, IL (07/19/2011)(readMedia)-- WHO:
• Illinois Army National Guard Military Funeral and Honors Team
• SPC Randall D. Dalton, killed in action July 24, 1971 in Cambodia during Vietnam War. Dalton has been deemed missing in action for the past 40 years.
WHAT:
• Return of Dalton's remains to his hometown, Glen Carbon
• Funeral with Full Military Honors featuring Military Honors from the Illinois National Guard, Illinois Department of Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Patriot Guard Riders. There will also be a flyover with three Illinois Army National Guard helicopters
WHEN/WHERE:
• Dalton's return: July 22, 12 p.m. at St. Louis Lambert Airport
• Dalton's funeral: July 24, 2 p.m. at Sunset Hill Cemetery in Glen Carbon
**Both events are open to the public**
WHY:
• After Dalton was shot down in an OH-6A Cayuse helicopter in 1971, the search and rescue team was only able to extract the pilot due to enemy fire. When the team came back the next day, the helicopter had be stripped and two crew members, one being Dalton, were missing.
• On Sept. 11, 1989 the Socialist Republic of Vietnam repatriated three boxes of human remains to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) laboratory at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.
• On Jan. 18, 2011, DNA testing positively identified those remains were Dalton's.
• Dalton will be the first Illinois Soldier killed in action during the Vietnam War to receive a funeral with full military honors by the Illinois Army National Guard Funeral and Honors team.
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