Hunter Wilson/Daily NewsFirefighters on the scene of a trailer fire at 473 N Campbell Rd. on Thursday. Richardsville Volunteer Fire Department, Gott Volunteer Fire Department, Barren River Volunteer Fire Department, Smiths Grove Volunteer Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services, Kentucky State Police and the Warren County Sheriff's Department all responded to the fire which left the trailer a total loss. A trailer adjacent suffered light smoke damage. One person was treated for a cut to the hand on the scene and a pet cat died in the fire according to Chief Brian Lee, of the Richardsville Volunteer Fire Department.

On Thursday, the remains of Maj. John Lee McElroy will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. His son, Russell McElroy, of Bowling Green will be there with other relatives, at a service for which they’ve waited 40 years.

“We prayed about this for a long time, and I guess our prayers were answered,” Russell McElroy said.

John McElroy of Eminence was a U.S. Air Force navigator on a C-130 transport plane in 1968, flying out of Mactan in the Philippines to Vietnam. On May 12 of that year his plane was loaded with more than 150 Vietnamese, families of South Vietnamese soldiers fleeing a base in Quang Tin Province that had been overrun.

Taking off from Kham Duo airstrip, it was hit by a rocket and exploded in a fireball just a mile off the runway, according to U.S. military records. Killed along with John McElroy were Maj. Bernard Bucher, the pilot; Staff Sgt. Frank Hepler, flight engineer; 1st Lt. Steven Moreland, co-pilot; George Long, load master; and passenger Capt. Warren Orr. There were no survivors, but no remains were recovered at the time.

Russell McElroy was 13 then. Growing up, he and his younger sisters clung to that uncertainty, hoping their father had somehow survived, he said. Then came better relations between the United States and Vietnam, and with that cooperation between the Vietnamese military and American recovery teams.

The crash site wasn’t pinpointed until 1991, and digging didn’t start until 1994. Then came DNA testing and searches through medical and dental records, trying to match fragments and small artifacts to individuals.

Before the crash site was found, all of Russell McElroy’s grandparents died. John McElroy’s wife died about four years ago, knowing the site had been found but before remains had been identified, Russell McElroy said.

“I’m sure after she passed away she was able to find my dad,” he said.

Throughout the search and funeral preparations, Russell McElroy said, he’s gotten steady support from friends and many Vietnam veterans.

“This has really touched a lot more people than I ever thought it would,” he said.

Identification came this year. On Oct. 27, he was told that his father’s remains, mingled with those of other airmen on the flight, would be buried at Arlington on Thursday. They’ll be placed next to remains of an Army man from the same plane.

Russell McElroy said he’s going up through Lexington with his sister, Linda Anne Starnes, and her husband, Larry, and their son, David Harold Starnes. They’ll pick up the Starnes’ other son, John Howard Starnes, and head on to Washington, D.C., to meet McElroy’s sister, Mary Vance Tucker, and his daughter, Suzanne Mount, for the ceremony.

“They’re both flying in Wednesday,” McElroy said.

He has assembled stacks of paper, pictures and clippings about his father to take along and reminisce. Along with those, McElroy is taking a few items to place in the coffin: a laminated memorial flier from Eminence Baptist Church, clippings from his father’s first haircut, soil from the family burial plot in Lexington and John McElroy’s Bible, given to him by his parents shortly after his 1940 baptism.

Among the memorabilia is a letter John McElroy wrote home just four days before his death. Downplaying the danger, he talked about coming home and apologized to his parents for causing trouble as a kid.

“Wish I were packing my bags to go with you all to Mexico now instead of heading back to Vietnam,” he said, reminiscing about other family trips.

“The only trip I want to take now is the one back to Kentucky,” John McElroy wrote. He promised to write again, and signed it “Love, John.”

McElroy figures the family trip and a professional video of the ceremony will cost about $3,000, a lot to come up with on short notice. The Air Force will reimburse much of that, but the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 13 to which Russell McElroy belongs has advanced him $1,500 to help cover the initial cost, he said. He plans to pay it back out of the Air Force reimbursement.

McElroy said he’s grateful for the support he’s gotten, but hopes that extends to continued interest in identifying and returning remains of U.S. military personnel. According to government records, of the nearly 3 million Americans who served in Vietnam, the fate of about 1,500 is still unknown.