Hero Returns Home

Hero Returns Home

(Monday, Aug. 06)

PAMPA — A hero is coming home to Pampa, decades after the military declared him dead.

Memorial services for Air Force Lt. Col. James Henry Ayres were at 2 p.m. today at First Christian Church in Pampa.

Ayres, 33 at the time of his death, will receive a funeral with full military honors, including a color guard and a flyover by four F-16 jets.

He and Lt. Col. Charles W. Stratton of Dallas were in a F-4E Phantom II fighter aircraft that went down on Jan. 3, 1971, during a bombing mission over Laos.

He was declared dead in 1974. Recent DNA testing determined human remains unearthed in the last five years were those of Ayres. — Amarillo Globe-News