After more than 50 years, a Bay Area family is getting some closure.
The remains of missing veteran, Colonel Ernest De Soto, were returned home Thursday and a memorial service and an interment service with full military honors was held Friday.
The family says after decades of waiting and wondering, this was a difficult but heartfelt day -- a day they had doubted would ever happen.
It took 54 years for the De Soto family to formally learn what happened to their loved one who went missing in action while serving in Vietnam during the war.
Finally, U.S. Air Force Col. De Soto was honored.
“It’s pretty special, I mean, you can't imagine something until you see it,” said his son, Craig De Soto.
It was an interment service with full military honors.
Ernest's remains arrived back home in San Francisco Thursday night, met by an honor guard. His casket draped in a U.S. flag decades after he disappeared in Vietnam.
His remains were only recently identified.
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“It's been a long time and it's like, I'm hoping this gives us a good finale or just to say goodbye, finally, or hello,” said his widow Joyce De Soto, who is 90 years old.
While Ernest was honored as a hero, it wasn't always easy for the family worrying and wondering about what happened.
Joyce also described what they were told when he first went missing.
“In Vietnam days, in 1969 when he was shot down, the war was not popular and we were told to be quiet and not talk to anybody,” she said.
But they didn’t stop fighting to find out what happened.
“We decided not to do that, we fought. I went to Washington D.C. many years and we did get some of the guys home and now Ernie just took a little bit longer,” she said.
In March, the family finally received a call they waited half a century to hear -- Ernest's remains had been found and identified.
After waiting so long for closure, Joyce prepared to see the flyover honoring her fallen husband.
“I think I'll be crying,” she said.
A day this family waited decades for and a day they won’t forget.
