WEST SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – The remains of a West Sacramento U.S. Navy fighter pilot who was shot down by enemy fire in Vietnam 47 years ago have been identified.

The Department of Defense said a DNA match confirmed the identity of Richard Laws.

Laws and his wife had two children before he was deployed on two tours in Vietnam.

His wife, Karen Laws Engelke, spoke to CBS13 Monday night from her home in Maryland and sent a picture she took on a visit to his Vietnam crash site along with their daughter and grandson.

“The children and mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers never forget these men,” she said. “And it’s still painful for us today, in a different way. It’s not as sharp and acute, but it is an ache.”

Laws’ remains will be interred in May at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD.