The man in the doorway wore a flight suit and said something about going to southeast Asia.

"What if something happens to you?" his son asked, looking up.

"Then you take good care of your family."

And Keith Leetun has. He was only 6 when the blue military car pulled to the curb outside his Ohio home, the men asking very officially to speak with his mother. He locked away the information she gave him: "Your father died for his country." He helped take care of his younger sister and eventually grew up and started a family of his own.

It is only now that Leetun is getting to know his father, a North Dakota native and true military hero shot down over North Vietnam.

The military this spring finally identified the remains of Lt. Col. Darel D. Leetun, a Hettinger native and graduate of Steele High School and North Dakota State University. Leetun will be buried with honors July 8 at Arlington National Cemetery.

The pilot's family said Leetun is the only North Dakota native to be awarded the Air Force's highest honor - the Air Force Cross - during the Vietnam War.

Leetun was shot down Sept. 17, 1966, while leading his squadron on a bombing run near Hanoi, in the Vietnamese province of Lang Son. His F-105 Thunderchief was struck by a Russian surface-to-air missile, but Leetun didn't eject until he reached his target area and dropped his bomb.

Leetun's wingman, Mike Lanning, said he never saw his friend eject. The plane crashed into a ridge about 10 miles from the target, and Leetun was listed as missing in action. The Air Force presumed Leetun dead in 1975. It had promoted him twice and awarded him the Air Force Cross, the Purple Heart and other honors.

"I knew he was a warrior - he earned 14 medals," Keith Leetun said. "But I didn't know who he was."

In a chance encounter Keith Leetun describes as providential, he met Lanning on a Virginia golf course in 1992. The two strangers were paired in the first round of the day, and got to talking. They realized their connection by the end of the first hole, and spent half an hour talking on the green.

"He kind of got choked up and told me my dad was his mentor, his best friend, the heart and soul of the squadron," Leetun said. "We just stood there on the green and didn't do anything but talk."

Leetun learned his father was always the life of the party, and a very giving man. That brought back memories of playing in his dad's parachute with all the other neighborhood kids, and of racing cardboard boxes on the front lawn.

Lanning told Leetun he didn't see a parachute come out of the plane the day of the crash, and his emergency beeper did not receive a signal. Although some of his family members felt differently, Keith Leetun accepted his father's death and tried to move on. There were no remains to verify it, but Leetun had accepted that it was so.

About that same time, Vietnamese villagers led a search team to a hillside location where human remains were found. The remains were shipped to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii no later than 1995.

Ten years later - this April - DNA tests proved them to be those of Lt. Col. Darel D. Leetun.

"I thought the thing was over," Keith Leetun said. "Then I got a call on April 25 from the Air Force, telling me they had to fly in and brief me in person. I didn't know what it could be about, why they couldn't tell me on the phone. They told me and I was stunned."

The Air Force sent Leetun an identification report, showing that DNA from the remains matched samples taken from Darel Leetun's brother, Tracy. Tracy Leetun, a former Wachter Middle School teacher, lives in Bismarck.

Keith Leetun will leave for Hawaii on Thursday to escort his father's remains to Virginia.

The burial has turned into a Leetun family reunion, with more than 100 family members planning to attend, including Darel Leetun's widow, Janet. Keith Leetun said many Vietnam veterans also have asked to attend the service, even though they didn't know his father.

"It's turned into a legacy celebration, honoring Vietnam vets," Leetun said. "They want to be a part of it, and I'm not going to turn anyone away."

Paraphrasing from the book of Genesis, Leetun said what was planned for evil has turned out good for the lives of many. Several in his family have found faith since his father's remains have been identified.

In the same chapter of the Bible, Joseph goes to bury his father. With happy memories billowing in his mind like a rippling parachute surrounded by laughing children, Keith Leetun will do just that.