Illinois soldier's remains buried after 40 years

Associated Press

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.

"We're just very happy today because this day has finally come," said Gayle Vecchetti, one of Dalton's sisters. "We can finally have our brother where we want him at -- here with our parents."

Linda Kruse, another sister, said the past few days have been an intensely emotional time for her, culminating with her little brother's remains being lowered into the ground.

"I was thinking in terms that we're on a journey, but we didn't know we were on a journey," Kruse said. "And we had come to the conclusion of it now and we never knew we would be here."

Sunday's burial service culminated a nearly 20-year search for Dalton's remains in the jungles of Cambodia.

State-of-the-art forensic techniques, DNA analysis and repeated excavations and interviews with villagers familiar with the crash site led to a breakthrough in 2009: the discovery of the remains belonging to Dalton and another soldier killed when their OH-6A helicopter crashed.

Two hours before Sunday's burial, the parking lot at Sunset Funeral Home was already thick with a phalanx of almost 150 motorcycles belonging to the Illinois Patriot Guard and other volunteers, many of them Vietnam veterans.

Despite Sunday's blistering heat, the motorcyclists said they felt privileged to lead the procession to Dalton's grave site, honoring a man who fought and died for their freedom.

"You can't pass this up," said Tony Renfro, 64, of Belleville, who served as a crew chief on an Army helicopter in Vietnam from 1968-69. "You got to come for this guy. It's a brother."

Renfro said he has taken part in other military burials because of what he went through when he returned home from Vietnam.

"We were treated so badly, that's why we do it," he said. "We don't want their families to go through what we did."

Renfro acknowledged the heavy emotions that military burials kindle within him.

"That's why everybody wears sunglasses," Renfro said, tapping the pair hanging off his T-shirt. "You don't want everybody to see you cry."

The Rev. Scott Dutton, one of Dalton's cousins, delivered a eulogy that led him to recount some of their adventures while growing up.

Dutton recalled how his cousin, as a teen-ager, spent a summer trying to learn how to water ski barefoot.

"Every time we went near the water, he had to try it at least once," Dutton said.

Dutton said it was important to remember Dalton's spirit.

"Randy's enlistment was voluntary. His presence on that helicopter was voluntary," Dutton said. "Today we honor that spirit that cost him so much."