Vet laid to rest after 1971 Cambodia helo crash – ArmyTimes – 20 Jul 2011
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jul 20, 2011 8:11:51 EDT
GLEN CARBON, Ill. — Told that Randy Dalton was killed during the Vietnam War, his family in southwestern Illinois wondered for decades if their loved one, killed with an Army pal [Sgt. Gregory Antunano] when their helicopter was shot down in Cambodia, would ever make his way home.
On Sunday, 40 years to the day since Dalton died, that cloud — and the serviceman’s remains — finally will be laid to rest.
Dalton will be buried next to his parents with full military honors at a Glen Carbon’s Sunset Hill Cemetery, ending his long journey home after years of painstaking efforts to identify the Army specialist’s remains.
“It puts closure to this,” Dalton’s stepmother, Collinsville City Council member Liz Dalton, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “No longer will we wonder, ‘Is he still alive?’ Even though the (medic) said he was dead, you always wonder.”
Dalton was from Collinsville, where his late dad served as mayor in the early 1990s. He was just 20 when the scout helicopter he was occupying with two other men was shot down and made a crash landing in Cambodia during a reconnaissance mission near the South Vietnam border.
A medic [Mike Bergbauer] who arrived on a rescue helicopter found one of the first helicopter’s crewmen to be dead and tried to revive Dalton, who stopped breathing during the resuscitation efforts. Rescuers had to leave the bodies of the two dead men behind because of enemy fire.
When U.S. troops returned the next day to retrieve the bodies, the bodies were gone.
In 1989, officials in Hanoi turned over three boxes of remains to the U.S. government, though it took years to go through the remains and secure identifications before Dalton’s relatives were asked last winter to submit DNA samples.
In March, Dalton’s family learned that his remains had been identified.
“Somebody worked very hard at this,” another of Dalton’s sisters, Karen Dalton Kloster of St. Louis, told the Post-Dispatch. “And I’m just flat-out amazed. Somebody was very diligent. We’re very, very happy.”
Patty Hopper, a founding member of the Arizona-based POW/MIA nonprofit group called Task Force Omega Inc., said there are about 1,700 Americans from the Vietnam War listed as prisoners of war or missing and unaccounted for.
The Belleville News-Democrat reports that the Defense Department lists more than 83,000 military personnel still accounted for as of last week, the vast majority from World War II.
“In Randy’s case, we knew he was gone because a medic was taking care of him when Randy died,” Hopper said. “You know he didn’t spend years in captivity being exposed to God knows what.”
Liz Dalton, the stepmother, said the Department of Defense kept the family informed and sent packets every three months about the search efforts.
“We felt they were doing as much as they could,” added Dalton, who was married to Randy Dalton’s father for 30 years before he died in 2005 at age 80. “I would have loved for my husband to know they found Randy.”
The family was given the option of burial at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington or Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery near St. Louis, but they decided it would be more fitting for Randy Dalton to be laid to rest beside his parents. [End]
For more background information on the loss of Dalton & Antunano, please see our Spur site at:
http://northwestvets.com/spurs/honor2.htm
The Patriot Guard will also be providing an escort for Dalton.
Roger “Bear” Young
SP/4 Randall Dalton - Photo by Dan Rhodes
15 August 2011:
Roger:
Not certain what feedback or information you found regarding Randy’s funeral, but it was amazing. The Illinois Patriot Guard that escorted Randy from the airport to the chapel was reportedly a mile long or 250+ motorcycles. When you exited onto the highway that led to the cemetary where the chapel was located, the highway was lined with 1050 large American flags, plus the flags inside the cemetary grounds from the chapel to the burial site.
The grounds around the chapel were covered with people although I have no idea how many. It was an incredible service. I wish you could have attended.
It was a sad occassion, but happy to finally have Randy back home.
I hope Sgt. Antunano’s remains are located so his family can have some closure.
Let me know if anything developes regarding Sgt. Antunano.
Steve Martin
17 August 2011:
Thought you might be interested in the fact that there is going to be a dedication of a travelling Vietnam memorial wall to my brother’s memory. It will be in Granite City, Illinois, on Labor Day Weekend. What a nice tribute. We understand that he is the only one of Illinois to be returned home so far.
Linda Kruse
10 November 2011 – Randall Dalton Veterans Park:
As tomorrow is Veterans Day it seems appropriate to share this update and photos with you.
My cousin, Randall Dalton, who was killed in action in Cambodia during the Vietnam war and whose body was removed by enemy soldiers and whose remains were subsequently found (39 & ½ years later), identified through DNA testing and returned to his family and finally buried (in July), 40 years to the day he was killed, has had a park dedicated in his honor and to the honor of all veterans since WW1, near his hometown, where I grew upIt is especially poignant to me as a Vietnam veteran having experienced the vilification my generation of veterans went through, in general, by the public, although we served our country, were separated from our families, made personal sacrifices, were put in harms way and many, like my cousin, gave their life for this country, albeit in a politically charged, unpopular and unsupported war
Personally I am happy to see the respectful remembrance Vietnam vets are finally receiving and pleased to see the respect our current generation of soldiers receive and deserve. Where any of us stand politically, soldiers, the people who fight and die, do so in the pursuit and protection of the American way of life.
Steve Martin
[Click on photo for full size image]
