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A Maryland family waited 36-years to be finally able to say "goodbye" to their son.
The Air Force Airman whose death in Vietnam was only recently confirmed was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday.
Sergeant James Caniford was proclaimed 'presumed killed in action' by the Pentagon in 1978, but his body was never found.
His remains were identified earlier this year by Defense Department (web) researchers who matched a tooth to his DNA after another excavation of the crash site where he died.
Caniford was 23-years-old and in his second tour of duty when his AC-130 Gunship was shot down over Laos in 1972.
The Middletown resident was the last unaccounted-for, Vietnam-era service member from Frederick County.
"I was so grateful that God let me live long enough to see this day happen," said Jim Caniford, James' father. "I needed a finality to this, and today was that finality."
"I consider my son to be a hero in doing what he always wanted to do," he said.
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