GREER, S.C. (WSPA) — After being missing for decades, an airman’s remains returned home on Sunday. Veterans from all across the Southeast came together to honor the fallen airman.
“We still have people that are unidentified from all wars, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam,” Rolling Thunder Inc. State, Liaison, Al Guest said.
Air Force Captain Frederick Hall was one of them.
“Captain Hall was born and raised in Waynesville, North Carolina and joined the Air Force, went to pilot training, was in Vietnam, was a navigator of a F4D Phantom jet that unfortunately crashed and in April of 1969 and he was unaccounted for.”
Until last year, when his remains were found and identified.
“We received notification actually several months ago that Captain Hall was going to be returned home today. So, we have Rolling Thunder Chapters from South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky.” Guest said. “Rolling Thunder is an organization whose primary mission is to educate the public about the fact that we still have prisoners of war and missing in action, M-I-A’s that are unaccounted for.”
Veterans gathered at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport to welcome home a fallen brother.
“Solidarity, we’re here to show support and love,” Guest said. “As a veteran that served as a year or two in Vietnam, towards the end of that tour, you consider yourself, it was called ‘being sure,’ in other words, you got down to a certain number of days before you knew you were going to come home. Captain Hall did not get that opportunity; his family did not get that opportunity to welcome him home, so we are here today.”
A day that is both bitter and sweet.
“There is a bit of sadness, but it is also a happy day for the fact that we do have another brother that has been identified and brought home,” Guest said.
A memorial service will be held for Captain Hall in Waynesville on Tuesday.
After Captain Halls’s remains were brought to the airport, veterans followed the transportation of Hall’s remains on motorcycles all the way to Waynesville, North Carolina.
