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HELENA - Governor Brian Schweitzer has ordered that flags be flown at half-staff on Friday, August 27, to honor 1st Lieutenant Paul Magers, a Montana soldier whose helicopter was shot down during the Vietnam War.

Magers remains had been missing for nearly four decades but were recently located and returned to Billings; a full military funeral will be held on Friday in Laurel.

August 11, 2010: BILLINGS - The Department of Defense has announced that the remains of 1st Lieutenant Paul G. Magers, of Billings, who was killed in action in 1971, has been located and will be returning home in the next several weeks.

Magers was killed during a routine mission in the vicinity of Quang Tri, Vietnam. He was a Cobra helicopter pilot, having just completed pilot training before being deployed to Vietnam.

On June 1, 1971, the soldiers were in a helicoper gunship, on an emergency mission to rescue an Army Ranger team from Quang Tri Province in South Vietnam. After the Rangers were picked up, their helicopter was ordered to stay behind and destroy mines that were left in the area. Their gunship was hit by gunfire from the ground, crashed and exploded, the Department of Defense said.

Pilots who saw the crash said no one could have survived. And because enemy troops were active in the area, American soldiers couldn't go back to search for their fallen comrades, according to the Defense Department statement.

Almost 20 years later, in 1990, U.S. analysts and investigators interviewed American and Vietnamese witnesses. A joint U.S.-Vietnamese team looked at the area in 1993 and 1998 and found what appeared to be fragments of a gunship. Another joint team excavated the site in 1999, but found no remains. However the team did find wreckage associated with the specific crash it was investigating.

Then, in 2008, a Vietnamese team excavated the site and found human remains, the Department of Defense said. In 2009, they found more remains and more evidence.

At that point, the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory got to work. Forensic analysis, circumstantial evidence and the mitochondrial DNA match to the Magers and Wann families confirmed the identification of the remains.

The Montana National Guard issued a statement Wednesday on behalf of the Magers family.

"The Magers' family is extremely grateful and honored by the outpouring of support and condolences from across the state and the nation in response to their loss. Paul was proud and honored to serve his country and chose to do so as a member of the aviation community within the United States Army. He served with great pride, dignity and honor. We welcome Paul home," said Major Tim Crowe, Montana National Guard public affairs officer.

Full military honors will be bestowed upon Magers by the Montana Army National Guard Honor Guard and a vigil will be held at 7 p.m. on August 26th at the Dahl Funeral Home in Billings.

The funeral services are planned for 10:30 a.m. on August 27th at the Holy Rosary Church in Billings and Magers will be laid to rest at the Yellowstone County Veterans Cemetery in Laurel.