26 Years After Dying During Vietnam War, Marine Sergeant Is Laid to Rest
A cold rain fell as Marine Sgt. Joseph Trujillo was laid to rest here Friday, 26 years after he was killed in Vietnam.
Fifteen friends and family members traveled from New Mexico and Texas for the graveside service at Arlington National Cemetery, where more than 227,000 military personnel and their family members are buried.
Six Marines in full dress uniform slowly carried Trujillo’s casket to the site of the service and carefully folded its flag, which they presented to William Drummond of Austin, Tex., Trujillo’s foster father.
The remains of Trujillo, of Deming, N. M., were returned to the United States in June by the Vietnamese after their discovery during joint U.S.-Vietnamese field investigations.
Trujillo was the 319th American previously reported missing in Southeast Asia to be accounted for. An estimated 2,264 Americans, most lost in Vietnam, remain unaccounted for.
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