LAKELAND, Fla. -- On this Memorial Day, Jim Stewart has closure, 52 years after his dad went missing in Vietnam.
He was 16 when his dad, an Air Force colonel, was deployed in August 1965.
“I really don’t remember the goodbye too much,” Stewart said.
However, he vividly remembers March 15, 1966, the day two Air Force officers and a chaplain delivered a message to his family.
Col. Peter Stewart's plane was shot down. He was missing in action.
“’Don't worry. We'll get him back. He'll be back soon,'” Stewart recalled them telling him.
Years went by without answers.
“Early on, we hoped he had parachuted out and was hiding somewhere,” he said. “That was what we were trying to cling to.”
Still, his family believed the Air Force would eventually bring him home.
Earlier this year, they finally got closure.
The Department of Defense interviewed people who lived near the Vietnam crash site, which helped them find Stewart’s body. He was buried in a field not far from where he crashed with a medallion of St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers.
Jim Stewart shared the news with his mom.
“I asked her what kind of service she wanted for dad, and she said, 'I want the biggest, baddest military service Polk County has ever seen,’” Stewart said.
Col. Stewart will come home next month. His body will be flown to Tampa International Airport on June 16. A public visitation will be held June 17 from 4-6 p.m. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. on June 18 at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Winter Haven.
The funeral is also open to the public.
►Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the 10News app now.
Have a news tip? Email desk@wtsp.com, or visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.
