The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Son flies home pilot killed in Vietnam War
The Air Force colonel was shot down during a mission in 1967.
Bryan Knight was 5 years old when he said goodbye for the last time to his father, Roy A. Knight Jr., at Love Field in Dallas.
Fifty-two years later, Bryan Knight, piloting a Southwest Airlines flight last week, brought back the remains of his father, an Air Force colonel who was killed in the Vietnam War, to the same airport.
On May 19, 1967, Roy Knight was shot down during a strike mission on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, according to the military, which initially listed him as missing in action and then declared him dead in 1974. Scientists used a dental analysis to identify Knight’s remains this year.
The solemn homecoming stopped travelers, security agents and airline employees in their tracks at the busy airport, where an Air Force honor guard greeted the Boeing 737 carrying the flag-draped coffin of Knight.
Among the people watching from Gate 12 was Jackson Proskow, the Washington bureau chief for Global News, a Canadian media outlet. He was returning from an assignment in El Paso, Texas, after reporting on the Aug. 3 mass shooting there.
An airline employee alerted travelers on the public address system about a special arrival, which Proskow chronicled on Twitter.
“I just sort of assumed they were waiting for a local politician or a newsmaker,” Proskow said in an interview Thursday night. “He was sort of struggling to get the words out. He said, ‘Today we’re welcoming back Colonel Knight to Dallas.’ He took this really long, emotional pause. Then he paused again and put down the microphone. He said, ‘The pilot of the plane today is his son.’”
“It was kind of a quiet gasp in the lounge area,” Proskow added. “Everybody was sort of standing almost at attention.”
Bryan Knight was at the controls of the Southwest flight for the last leg of his father’s journey home, from Oakland, California, to Dallas. The plane landed at 11:16 a.m. It taxied under an arc of water sprayed by two airport fire trucks — an aviation and maritime tribute known as a water salute. Dozens of airline ground crew employees stood reverently as the 737 pulled up to the gate.
A baggage handler used a belt loader to offload the coffin from the plane’s cargo hold while Roy Knight’s relatives waited on the tarmac. Six members of an Air Force honor guard marched in unison toward the plane and then carried the coffin. In the terminal, airline workers handed out American flags to the travelers who were watching.
“They’ve waited five decades for this moment,” Proskow said. “It was just so dignified and respectful. It’s rare to have quiet time at an airport, especially in the middle of the day. It’s one of those weeks where people are looking for a good news story.”