MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – One search has ended in the case of a New Hampshire man who disappeared during the Vietnam war, but another has begun.

The military has identified the remains of Airman First Class Phillip Stickney, 28, of Manchester, whose cargo plane was shot down over Vietnam in May 1966. His remains were returned to the United States in 1998 and identified this year.

Now the military is looking for Stickney’s relatives. Stickney, who left behind a wife, three sons and a daughter, would have been 66 this year. His eldest son, Phillip, would be 49 and his youngest, Jeffrey, 39. Newspaper reports written when Stickney disappeared said the family was living in Tennessee, where Stickney was based before going to Vietnam.

He will be buried in Little Rock, Ark., on Memorial Day, said Lt Col. Don Kimminau, the commander of the 62nd Airlift Squadron in Little Rock.

Stickney was one of eight New Hampshire men still missing since the war.

Bob Williams of Manchester knows Stickney’s name well. Since December 2002, Williams has met with other veterans each month to read the names of soldiers from New Hampshire who are missing in action.

“When they find remains and they’re identified as the remains of that person, it gives closure,” said Williams, an organizer of the annual Walk of Awareness to remember POWs and MIAs.

“And now the husband, father, son is home, it’s a closure to that chapter. We want closure to all these chapters.”

Stickney had planned to make a career of the service, according to reports published in 1966. He had enlisted in 1956 and was on his last mission before coming home for assignment to a flight school in Virginia. His father, Oscar Stickney, was a World War I veteran.

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Information from: The Union Leader, http://www.theunionleader.com

AP-ES-05-21-04 0740EDT