Maj. Fredrick Joel Ransbottom, who was missing in action for nearly 40 years, will be buried near his father next month at Memorial Park Cemetery.

Ransbottom was killed May 12, 1968, when North Vietnamese forces overran an observation post in the Quang Nam-Da Nang Province, but he was one of 17 servicemen who could not be accounted for after the war. His family didn't know if he was dead or a prisoner of war.

His mother, Laverne Ransbottom said the uncertainty was brutal for her family, especially her husband, Fredrick Arthur Ransbottom, who died in 1989.

The younger Ransbottom's remains will be returned to Oklahoma next month for a Jan. 13 funeral at Henderson Hills Baptist Church in Edmond.

His mother bought a plot for him near his father at Memorial Park, where he will be buried with full military honors.

Dealing with the death

Laverne Ransbottom said she is still coming to terms with the news that her son is dead.

It is hard for her to accept because she spent so many years wondering what happened to him, but she said she is convinced members of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command found his remains in South Vietnam.

Search teams conducted eight investigations and four excavations between 1993 and 2006 in search of the men, who were unaccounted for after the May 1968 attack, according to the Defense Department.

Laverne Ransbottom said searchers paired eyewitness accounts with military strategy to determine where observation posts would have been near the Kham Duc Special Forces camp, leading to the discovery of human remains and personal effects belonging to Maj. Fredrick Ransbottom and Staff Sgt. William E. Skivington Jr. of Las Vegas and several other soldiers. The personal effects included Ransbottom's class ring from Putnam City High School, where he graduated in 1965.

Fredrick Ransbottom was identified through dental records, his mother said.

"It's such a miracle,” Laverne Ransbottom said. "There's no other way to explain it.”

Fredrick Ransbottom is survived by his mother and two younger brothers, Larry and Donnie.