LOCKPORT, N. Y. — The remains of a U.S. Navy pilot shot down in Vietnam 51 years ago have been discovered and will be returned home, giving his family a surprise special reason to honor him on this Memorial Day.

Lt. Commander Frederick Peter Crosby, a native of Lockport, New York, had been assumed dead when his RF-8A fighter jet was struck in mid-air by anti-aircraft guns over North Vietnam on June 1, 1965.

Efforts over the years to find the 32-year-old Crosby came up empty, but family members said they received a call Wednesday from the Vietnam Office of Seeking Missing Persons reporting Crosby’s remains had finally been found in an excavated field in Thanh Hoa province.

“It was kind of overwhelming,” Crosby’s daughter, Deborah, said in a phone interview with the Lockport, New York, Union-Sun & Journal. “We hadn’t talked to the Department of Defense or the Navy Casualty Office in years.”

Deborah, who lives in Long Island, New York, said she looked at her phone during her lunch break and found a message asking her to call the missing persons office, saying it was about her father.

“He let me know that they had excavated a site in Vietnam in October or November, and sent the remains they found to a lab for DNA testing,” she said.

Deborah said her aunt Sharon, Frederick Crosby’s sister, gave a sample of her blood for DNA testing about 11 years ago, and “they were able to make a positive match” from that.

Sharon Crosby, who now lives in Prescott, Ariz., said in a phone interview that she was “stunned” to hear her brother’s remains had been recovered. She said she hadn’t attended a briefing for families of missing-in-action military in three years.

“They said they never give up, but I was discouraged and I didn’t think Frederick would ever be found,” Sharon said. “I guess it really is no man left behind.“

Crosby grew up in Lockport and attended high school there before his family moved to Orlando, Florida. “Everyone loved him,” said Sharon, who was born in Lockport and lived here until age 11. “He was a very special person.”

Deborah said her father married her mother, Mary, while living in Orlando, Fla. They had three children (Deborah and two boys) before moving to California. Deborah was 6 when her father was killed in combat.

“It was a lot for my mom by herself,” recalled Deborah. “All of a sudden, she was a single mom with four kids.”

Deborah said her mother ended up starting a talent agency in San Diego that specialized in casting commercials. “She really pulled herself up by her bootstraps,” Deborah said, adding that her mother died several years ago at age 67.

Deborah and her brother Steve both live on Long Island; their two other brothers live in San Diego. In addition to his sister Sharon, Lt. Commander Crosby had a brother, David, who lives in Orlando.

Decisions about where Frederick Crosby’s remains will be buried are still undecided.

“The news is so new, we haven’t been able to have a family visit yet,” Deborah said. “I know it will be a full military service, honorable and full of pride. My father was very proud to be in the military and to serve his country.”

Deborah said Memorial Day has always been sad for her because the anniversary of her father’s death and Father’s Day are so close to it.

“We’re going into this Memorial Day with a whole different feeling,” she said. “There’s a whole bunch of different emotions, but we’re so proud that he’s getting the attention and honor he deserves.”

Kaley Lynch is a reporter for the Lockport, N.Y., Union-Sun & Journal.