Video by Tom George/CNS-TV
ARLINGTON, Va. — It was a final goodbye just in time for Veterans Day, almost 40 years in the making.
Three soldiers killed in Vietnam who had been reporting missing in action were finally laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday.
Captain Arnold Holm of Waterford, Conn., Pfc. Wayne Bibbs of Blue Island, Ill., and Spc. Robin Yeakley of South Bend, Ind., had been presumed dead in 1972 when the helicopter they were flying in was shot down in Vietnam, but their remains were missing for years.
Improvements in DNA technology and better relations with Vietnam are making it easier to identify POWs and MIAs who are still unaccounted for from the War in Vietnam.
According to the League of POW / MIA Families, 1,681 soldiers from the war are still missing.
At the funeral, the three families gathered for the group burial of the soldiers. Mothers, widows, and brothers all received flags that honored their relatives’ service, at a ceremony featuring full military honors.