Three crosses at the front of the podium at today’s Veterans Day ceremony at Becker Village Mall represented the tombs of unknown soldiers.

The identity of one, however, was discovered through DNA testing and a man in the audience, Nick Nicolai, had flown with him in Vietnam.

Blassie

Nicolai spoke up during the ceremony to briefly acknowledge he flew A-37 B Dragonfly aircraft with Air Force First Lieutenant Michael John Blassie, who was shot down on May 11, 1972, over An Hoc in South Vietnam.

On Memorial Day of 1984 the remains of then unknown pilot were placed in Arlington during an elaborate ceremony.

Fourteen years and nearly two months after the ceremony the government announced the remains were those of Blassie, a native of St. Louis.

“It was a surprise to all of us,” Nicolai, who now lives on Lake Gaston, said following today’s ceremony. “I was very sorry and proud to know one of my brothers was an unknown solider.”

Nicolai and Blassie knew each other for nine months. “He was a really great guy and fun to be around. He looked like a football player and lit up a room.”

On July 10, 1998, an MC-130 airplane from Lieutenant Blassie's unit the 8th Special Operations Squadron, transported him home to St. Louis.  The following morning Air Force jets flew over the grave site at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, one of them peeling away in the Missing Man Formation, a final tribute to one of their own.