GLEN CARBON, Ill. (AP) — The remains of a Vietnam War veteran from southwestern Illinois will be buried alongside his parents on Sunday, 40 years after the young helicopter gunner was killed in a crash overseas.

Army Spc. Randy Dalton will be buried with full military honors at Sunset Hill Cemetery in Glen Carbon, Ill. He is being buried exactly four decades after the 20-year-old was killed in a helicopter crash in Cambodia.

More than 200 people, some waving American flags, watched as the Illinois Patriot Guard escorted Dalton's casket from St. Louis to Sunset Hill Funeral Home on Friday.

Dan Lentz, of Anna, Ill., told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that it was important to give Dalton an honorable welcome home.

"This soldier went to fight for our freedom, served in an unpopular war and was lost in the jungle for 40 years," Lentz said.

Susan Schulte of Grafton also attended the event and gave Dalton's sister, Linda Kruse, a red metal MIA bracelet with her brother's name on it. Schulte has kept the bracelet for nearly 30 years.

"It's like it was meant to be," the 55-year-old Schulte told the (Alton) Telegraph said of her encounter with Kruse. "She was very sweet, very appreciative and thought it was nice I had it all this time."

The U.S. government and Dalton's family spent decades trying to identify his remains. Boxes retrieved in 1989 took years to examine before relatives were asked last winter to submit DNA samples.

Dalton's scout helicopter was shot down on July 24, 1971, during a reconnaissance mission near the South Vietnam border. His body and that of another soldier were left behind due to enemy fire, and their bodies were missing the following day when officials attempted to retrieve them.