Remains Of Vietnam Airman To Be Buried In Arkansas After 38 Years

The remains of a soldier who vanished in Vietnam in 1966 are to be laid to rest in Arkansas. On Monday -- Memorial Day -- Airman First Class Phillip Stickney will be commemorated at a ceremony to be attended by Governor Mike Huckabee and other dignitaries. Stickney`s remains will be buried the next day at the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery. Stickney was from Manchester, New Hampshire. His widow, Patricia, lives in Arkansas. Stickney`s remains were returned to the United States in 1998 and identified in February. In May 1966, he was in a cargo plane that was shot down over North Vietnam. He was reported missing in action. The Stickneys had four children. Today, Patricia Stickney is a grandmother of nine and great-grandmother of two. She thought her husband could have been a prisoner in Vietnam, or maybe he returned under a pseudonym and wanted to be left alone. Now, she says she has no hope that he survived the war. ------ After her husband didn`t come back from the war, Patricia Stickney moved from New Hampshire to Sewart Air Force Base in Tennessee, where her husband had been stationed. By living near the base, she felt closer to her husband, and if he returned, she`d be nearby. Later, when the Air Force closed Sewart, she followed Stickney`s old squadron to the Little Rock Air Force Base at Jacksonville.