Vietnam MIA's body laid to rest after 40 years

Local soldier's body laid to rest 40 years after he disappeared
BY MIKE FITZGERALD - News-Democrat

GLEN CARBON -- Randy Dalton's family, after waiting 40 years to the day, finally laid him to rest Sunday.

An Army honor guard, in white gloves and dress uniforms, carried Dalton's flag-draped coffin the last few yards to his resting place on the gentle slope of a hill at Sunset Hill Cemetery.

A man dressed as a Union soldier from the Civil War played "Taps." More than 400 people stood silently as seven volunteers aimed their rifles skyward and fired three volleys.

An then the honor guard commander, an Army sergeant, presented each of Dalton's three sisters a tightly folded American flag -- a final gesture to honor the 20-year-old Collinsville man whose body disappeared on July 24, 1971.

That's when the helicopter on which Dalton served as a door gunner was shot down during a reconnaissance mission over Cambodia. Although Dalton was due to return home in a few weeks, he volunteered for the mission to take the place of a friend who'd fallen sick.


Read more: Local soldier body laid to rest