Over five decades after he was shot down during a high-risk reconnaissance flight over North Vietnam, the remains of Lieutenant Commander Frederick Peter Crosby have been positively identified using DNA.
Crosby was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying his Navy jet at low-altitude in an effort to get bomb-damage assessment of the heavily defended Dong Phong Thuong bridge site in North Vietnam.
After completing the run at extremely low altitude (family members say it was 300'), Lieutenant Commander Crosby's plane was hit by hostile fire and crashed.
Crosby is a native of Lockport who grew up on Walnut street, loved to build model airplanes, go out on Lake Ontario with his sister Sharon (who would become a championship water skier), and received an award from the American Legion while at Lockport High School.
Around 1948, the family moved to Florida and Frederick Crosby would go on to join the US Navy, get married and have children while based out of Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego.
Final burial plans are still being worked out with consideration being given to Arlington and Fort Rosecrans National Cemeteries as well as possibly having the remains returned to a family plot in the Lockport area.
7 Eyewitness News reporter Ed Reilly talked with family members and Niagara County veterans about the identification.
