Bringing A Hero Home

A decadelong quest ends with a pilot’s third burial at Arlington.

- Mark Thompson

A fierce firefight soon broke out as insurgents headed toward their prize: the downed AH-6 Little Bird chopper and about 20 U.S. soldiers, including members of the secret Delta Force who had landed afterward to protect it.

But then, much as the cavalry used to ride to the rescue, Air Force Major Troy Gilbert miraculously appeared from over the horizon, piloting an F-16. The militants were too close to civilians and friendly forces for bombs, so Gilbert screamed in fast and low—200 ft. above the desert—and shredded a truck full of bad guys with the six-barreled Gatling gun tucked into the left side of his F-16. He roared into a tight right turn and opened up again, his eyes glued to the second truck. But at 500 m.p.h., he stuck to his target a second too long, flying his plane into the ground even as he desperately pulled back on the stick.

At the cost of his own life, Gilbert’s daring helped save his fellow Americans on Nov. 27, 2006. But by the time the clash ended and U.S. troops made it to the wreckage, Gilbert was gone. U.S. officers had seen, via a video feed from a drone far above, al-Qaeda fighters pull Gilbert’s body from the wreckage, roll it up in a carpet and stash it inside a truck. The Army stormed five nearby buildings where they suspected Gilbert’s remains had been taken, but came up empty.

Advances in identifying remains, and a paucity of major battles, have shrunk the number of U.S. troops declared missing in action in recent wars. With Gilbert’s return, there are no American MIAs remaining in Iraq or Afghanistan. There are 126 MIAs from 14 Cold War clashes (most involving shoot downs over water); 1,618 from Vietnam; 7,780 from Korea; and more than 73,000 from World War II.