Frederick P. Crosby comes home

Last year Hondo told us that DPAA had recovered the remains of Navy LCDR Frederick P. Crosby. Top Kone sends a link which reports that his daughter, Deborah Crosby, will finally lay him to rest in San Diego;

Crosby says she spent decades inquiring about the progress of her father’s case and providing anything to help in the search, including her aunt’s DNA.

Last year, military investigators found her father’s remains at the bottom of a fish pond in Vietnam.

From the San Diego Tribune;

Two U.S. Navy planes came in fast over a bridge in Dong Phong Thuong, North Vietnam. It was June 1965.

Cloud cover forced them to descend extremely low. The enemy was waiting.

Heavy ground fire erupted and the plane of Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Crosby of San Diego was on fire as it plummeted toward a fish pond.

The RF-8A reconnaissance aircraft rolled before it crashed, spraying up water and mud.

Crosby, a 31-year-old father of four, was listed as killed in action, though his body remained missing. It left his wife to grieve, pick up the pieces and provide a life for their children.

Deborah Crosby — 6 years old when her dad died, the family’s only daughter — always felt a void in her chest, especially on each Memorial Day, when people mourn at the graves of the fallen.

[…]

But today, May 26, Frederick Crosby’s remains will come home to San Diego — thanks to the tenacity of his daughter, the long memory of the U.S. Defense Department and the will of the taxpayers to keep searching for troops missing in action.

The flag-draped coffin should arrive at Lindbergh Field around noon.

The decorated pilot will be buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery on Sunday, virtually within eyeshot of the Point Loma house where his children grew up.

His headstone will read “He is home.”

An update:

Deborah Crosby, center right, hugs her brother John Crosby, right, in front of her father’s casket after its arrival to the airport Friday in San Diego. (Associated Press)

Category: We Remember