Son Honors Air Force Father Who Was MIA in Vietnam for 52 Years

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES

03.10.2026

Story by Kevin Hymel 

Arlington National Cemetery   

Richard A. Kibbey Jr. was only 12 years old when an Air Force chaplain, a lieutenant colonel and an enlisted airman knocked on his family’s front door. “I knew immediately it was not good news,” he remembered. His father and namesake, Col. Richard Kibbey, had been serving in Vietnam as an HH-3E “Jolly Green Giant” helicopter pilot, rescuing downed flight crews.

Young Kibbey ran down the hallway and hid against a wall as he heard his mother answer the door and learn that Kibbey’s father had been reported missing in action. When Kibbey Jr. told the story at Arlington National Cemetery on Feb. 25, 2026, almost 60 years after hearing the news, his eyes filled with tears. On Feb. 6, 1967, Col. Kibbey and his crew had just rescued a downed Air Force pilot, Capt. Lucius Heiskell, when their helicopter came under anti-aircraft fire and crashed. Only Airman 2nd Class Duane Hackney, who was blown out of the helicopter and parachuted into a crevasse, survived the crash. Col. Kibbey, two other crewmen and Heiskell were all listed as missing in action.

“My mom hoped and prayed after that,” Kibbey Jr. recalled. The Air Force sent her pictures of American POWs in North Vietnam, taken by Red Cross volunteers, in the hope that she could identify her husband.

Even as Col. Kibbey remained missing, Kibbey Jr. followed his father into the Air Force, commissioning as an officer and eventually retiring as a lieutenant colonel. Although he never met Hackney, the sole survivor of the crash, the two spoke on the phone several times.

Kibbey Jr. explained that in 2017, a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) team in Vietnam was searching for remains at Heiskell’s crash site when a local farmer handed them a box. It contained remains—and his father’s dog tags. The farmer then directed them up a hill to the downed helicopter. Soon after, a DPAA official informed Kibbey Jr. that his father’s dog tags had been found. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “It had been 52 years that we had known nothing.”

In 2018, a DPAA team positively identified some of the recovered remains as Col. Kibbey’s. On March 29, 2019, he was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery with full military funeral honors with escort. More than 30 people attended, including Kibbey Jr. and his uncles.

After DPAA discovered more remains at the crash site in subsequent years, Kibbey Jr. and his wife, Elizabeth, returned to the cemetery in 2021 for additionalpartial remains to be interred, and again on Feb. 25, 2026. (No military honors are rendered for subsequent interments.) DPAA’s continued efforts impressed Kibbey Jr. “They keep going back to the crash site,” he noted. “They’re still looking for Lucius Heiskell.”

In a simple ceremony, Kibbey Jr. and Elizabeth placed the urn at Col. Kibbey’s grave in Section 60, where it would be interred with his previously identified remains. Air Force Chaplain (Maj.) Kevin Pugh described Kibbey as a father who built forts and skating rinks in the backyard, took his children camping and skiing, “and filled their days with laughter, adventure and the steady assurance of his love.” Pugh asked that Kibbey’s relatives keep his memory alive in their hearts and minds. “And as you keep those memories alive,” he concluded, “his legacy will forever live on.”

After the service, Kibbey Jr. explained that his family chose Arlington National Cemetery as his father’s final resting place because “this is a place where American heroes come.” He added that returning to the cemetery brings him comfort. “It’s a healing,” he said.

Kibbey Jr.’s only regret was that his mother, Mary Ann Kibbey, never learned of her husband’s fate before her passing. “She just kept hoping something would happen,” he said. “Now it has.”

• Date Taken: 03.10.2026
• Date Posted: 03.10.2026 12:28
• Story ID: 560145
• Location: ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, US
• Hometown: MELBOURNE, FLORIDA, US