His children call it a miracle.
Fifty years after an Air Force Colonel was killed in the Vietnam War, his remains have returned home.
Col. Edgar Felton Davis was laid to rest Friday, beside his wife, Martha at the Eastern Carolina State Veterans Cemetery.
“Service before self,” Col. Alan Davis, Davis’ son, said that was his father’s motto.
“First and foremost he was a farmer,” Alan Davis said.
Davis grew up in Goldsboro, went to Goldsboro High and then to North Carolina State University. In the Air Force, Davis served as a navigator.
On Sept. 17, 1968, on an operational mission over Laos his bomber was shot down. But those in the plane weren’t found until a few months ago.
They arrived at Raleigh-Durham International Airport Thursday.
“We honestly didn’t expect this. I mean it’d been a long time,” Martha Morton, Davis’ daughter.
Many lining the roads as the procession made its way from the airport to Goldsboro.
“You can’t see that and not know that these people appreciate what he did,” Alan Davis said.
Hundreds more gathered for his funeral. Davis left behind a wife and three children.
His sons said their father’s service inspired them to join the Air Force.
“I would have to say it was for me. I think he was just copying me because I’m the older one,” Col. Edgar Davis II said.
Davis’ children also had a message.
“Knowing that this government, this military doesn’t leave anybody behind and they are continuously looking and it’s important to remind the public that there are still men missing,” Davis II said.