The remains of a highly decorated Air Force command pilot, missing in action since the World War II veteran vanished in his plane over a Vietnam jungle 20 years ago, were flown home Friday.

A full military honors ceremony was given for Col. Charles E. Blair of Lynchburg, Va., at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii before his body was flown to the mainland.The body arrived later in the afternoon at Travis Air Force Base in California, where another solemn ceremony was held before Blair's remains were transferred to the Oakland Army Depot.

Blair will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, but funeral arrangements were not final.

"He's coming home to the Virginia soil at long last and that's beautiful," his widow, Marian Blair of historic Williamsburg, Va., said.

Blair was 43 years old when the small reconnaissance aircraft he was flying went down in South Vietnam on March 19, 1968.