Sgt. 1st Class Lewis Clark Walton Jr. has two full combat tours in Iraq.

His father, Sgt. 1st Class Lewis Clark Walton Sr., only recently made it home from his second tour in Vietnam.

The younger Walton, a member of Rhode Island's 115th Military Police Company, escorted his father's remains from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command on Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, to his hometown of East Greenwich, R.I., for burial May 1.

On May 3, 1971, then-Staff Sgt. Lewis C. Walton Sr, two fellow Green Berets and five local Vietnamese personnel disappeared while on a reconnaissance patrol in a remote, rugged area near Da Nang.

Two decades later, JPAC investigators discovered what happened. After interviewing several witnesses in Vietnam, they determined that the patrol members were ambushed, had died in the ensuing firefight and were not buried.

JPAC teams surveyed and excavated the ambush site five times between 1993 and 2006, finding U.S. Army equipment, human remains, a set of airborne "jump wings" and a St. Christopher medallion belonging to Sergeant Walton's father.

"To come full circle, obviously you feel a sense of relief or some closure," the younger Walton said. "The main thing is you are bringing them home."

JPAC scientists identified the elder Walton's remains using mitochondrial DNA-a process that took two years.

The son said he was very impressed with and appreciative of the JPAC.

"To say thank you is an understatement," Sgt. 1st Class Walton Jr. said.

More than 88,000 service members are missing from previous wars, including more than 1,780 from Vietnam.

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