FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- The remains of a U.S. soldier killed by friendly fire in Vietnam in 1968 have been identified and returned home, military officials say.
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office said in a release Friday that Army Specialist Lawrence Aldrich will be buried in his home town of Fort Worth, Texas, this weekend.
DPMO officials said Aldrich died on May 6, 1968, when, as a member of a search-and-clear mission in Binh Dinh province, he and two other Americans got into a battle with enemy forces. Aldrich was manning an M-60 machine gun position when an air strike was called in.
Officials said one of the bombs inadvertently landed on Aldrich's position, killing the three soldiers. Members of his unit later recovered the remains of the two other men, but those of Aldrich could not be found.
DPMO said a 2007 investigation led to a March 2009 excavation that unearthed human remains confirmed by matching the remains with Aldrich's dental records.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Aldrich's oldest surviving sibling, Darwin Aldrich, as saying, "It opens up your head to a lot of memories and your heart to a lot of emotions that haven't been experienced in a long time."
