DALLAS — More than 50 years after Air Force Capt. Troy "Gordie" Cope's jet crashed during a Korean War dogfight, mourners gathered Tuesday for a final goodbye at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery.
For decades after his jet was shot down, Cope's fate was a mystery. But by the late 1990s, clues emerged that led to the excavation of his crash site in Chinese territory and the recovery of his remains.
It was not until February that the Pentagon announced it had identified the remains of Cope, whose case put a spotlight on a Russian role in the 1950-53 Korean War that was kept quiet for decades.
"He is certainly gone, but he is not forgotten," Republican Rep. Joe Barton said.
Veterans joined family, friends and representatives of the city's Korean population for the burial. Jets from Cope's old squadron flew overhead in a "missing man" formation.
"I'm so glad he's back. I really am," said Korean War veteran Ray Duncan, 71, who served at the same base in Korea but did not know Cope. "The more I thought about it, it really started tugging on my heart."
Cope, of Norfork, Ark., was flying what was then the Air Force's best fighter, the F-86 Sabre, on Sept. 16, 1952, when he encountered MiG-15 fighters over the Yalu River that separates North Korea from China.
After his plane went missing, his family was told only that he was missing in action, said nephew Chris G. Cope, 50.
"Everybody was left in the dark," Chris Cope said. "There was always hope. He was one of four brothers — all in the Air Force. They took it real hard.
"The worst part of an MIA case is the not knowing."
In 1995, a U.S. businessman spotted Cope's name on a dog tag on display in a military museum in the Yalu River city of Dandong, China.
During a search by Pentagon analysts of Russia's Podolsk military archives in 1999, documents describing Cope's shootdown were discovered. They included statements and drawings by Russian pilots who had flown the MiG-15s for the North Koreans.
The documents contained detailed reports on a search of the crash site by Russian and Chinese officials, giving the Pentagon enough detail to ask the Chinese government for permission to send a team of U.S. specialists to investigate. In May 2004, U.S. officials found aircraft debris and human remains.
Before the burial, about 90 people attended a memorial service where Cope's flag-draped coffin was flanked by two pictures of a young Cope in uniform.
"It overwhelmed me to see what has been done here today," said Carl Cope, his brother.
Cope, who was 28 when he was shot down, left behind a wife and three young sons.
His oldest, 57-year-old Johnny E. Cope of Sevierville, Tenn., said he grew up with pride in his father, but did not remember or know much about him. "We were so young we didn't know what was going on," he said.
"My mom never spoke about him at all," said Johnny Cope, who served two tours in Vietnam. "She never was the same after he was reported missing."
Deciding that they would never know what had happened to their "farmboy" from Norfork, Ark., family members held a memorial service there in 1988, Chris Cope said.
After that service, Johnny Cope said he'd pretty much put his father's death behind him. "For me — that was it. It was over. We had the flag and that was it."
Tuesday's service provided something the earlier one did not: a homecoming. The Dallas area was picked for burial because it's near the home of one of Cope's brothers.
"The service we'd had was without him," Johnny Cope said. "This time we'll have him. He's home where he belongs."