Family to bury pilot 27 years later

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The family of a Shawnee pilot shot down more than 27 years ago will finally get a chance this week to bury his remains. <br><br>Navy pilot James W. Hall had been missing in action

Tuesday, April 4th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The family of a Shawnee pilot shot down more than 27 years ago will finally get a chance this week to bury his remains.

Navy pilot James W. Hall had been missing in action since October 1972. In November, his widow was told her husband's remains had been identified through DNA testing.

A 1952 graduate and star quarterback of Shawnee High School, Hall will be buried Friday with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

"(Friday) will be the closest I have been to Jim in 27 years," said widow Carole Hall, who now lives in Colorado Springs, Colo. "Even though I know it's just a box of bones, it's still a box of bones of somebody who was very precious to us."

James Hall, a commander, was 38 when he took off from an aircraft carrier Oct. 28, 1972, on a surface-to-air missile suppression mission. Over the target area in the Nghe An province in North Vietnam, Hall was heard to radio his wing man, "Two SAMs(surface-to-air missiles) lifting at 12 o'clock." No other radio messages were heard.

In 1989, Vietnam repatriated to the United States 15 boxes containing remains.
At the time, a positive identification could not be made. Technological advances in forensic science later made it possible.

Carole Hall said she thought the day would never come. Through the years, the government had contacted her several times with a possible identification.

"I really had just thought it would never be resolved," she said. "This really is a gift. It does bring peace. I have been really surprised about how much it means to bring him home."

Their children, Julie, Jeff and John were 15, 12 and 10 when their father disappeared. John, now 40, will travel to Hawaii this week to accompany his father's remains to Washington.

"It's very, very important to the boys to bring him home," Carole Hall said. "They really wanted to go find their dad."

Carole and James Hall became friends as fourth-graders and sweethearts as high school seniors. They married in 1955 and Carole Hall, now 65, never remarried.

"We got it right the first time," she said.