Air Force Capt. Mark A. Peterson never came home from Vietnam.
Surely, he died there. But nobody was returned in a flag-draped coffin. Not even so much as a tooth or hair has been found. Nothing to prove the young pilot from North Canton was killed after he d parachuted from his aircraft, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam on Jan. 27, 1973.
On this Memorial Day, Peterson remains one of the Vietnam War s 1,584 U.S. service members still unaccounted for in Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia. Officially, he is missing in action, though presumed dead.
Gone, but not forgotten.
At first, Peterson s parents kept his memory alive. That is, until his dad, Mauritz Pete Peterson died in 1991; his mom, Rosalie, followed in 2002. Then, the duty fell squarely in the lap of his sister, Tanalynne (Peterson) Sickafoose, who passed away at the age of 61 in 2006.