Family And Country Waited 39 Years For Closure

Major Burke Morgan was a graduate of the US Air Force Academy who married his high-school sweetheart, Mary Craig, the day after receiving his Lieutenant's bars. They had two children, Dana and Kyle.

According to the Academy Spirit, after earning the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1963, Major Morgan, a Navigator, was killed on August 22, 1967 when his A-26 crashed in the Plain of Jars region in Laos. Unknown at the time, he survived the crash, but he and his pilot were killed by enemy soldiers.  Four years later, after receiving unspecified information, the Department of the Air Force declared them both Killed In Action. Since then, Mrs. Craig (who had remarried), Dana and Kyle have waited for further word of his fate.

Mrs. Craig died in February after fighting a long illness, and after learning last November that the Pentagon's POW-Missing Personnel office had learned what happened to her husband. They told her a former driver of an official in Laos had held the Major's remains since the war without knowing what to do with them.

Major Morgan's son, Kyle Craig (adopted by his step-father), was just a toddler when his father died. He only knows his father from stories told him by his mother, "Heroic stories," he recalled.

He told the Associated Press he believes his mother fought her illness until she learned of Major Morgan's fate. "It was great closure for her. She finally had all the answers she needed."

Major Morgan finally received the recognition accorded to America's fallen. The US Air Force Academy Class of 1961, Major Morgan's class, held their 45-year reunion to honor his memory.

This past Thursday morning, while his former classmates and family looked on, 60 "Patriot Guard Riders," local members of a nationwide group, dismounted after riding their motorcycles into the chapel drive. Taking positions around the overlook and steps of the chapel, they unfurled flags and mutely stood post.

Then, following a moving ceremony in the shadow of the Academy's cadet chapel, with USAF jets flying a missing-man formation overhead, Major Burke Morgan, a true American Hero, was finally laid to rest next to his wife Mary.

ANN salutes Major Morgan, and sincerely thanks all those who serve so selflessly to preserve our great country.

FMI: www.usafa.af.mil