Memorial Day Changes on Vietnam Wall

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Another name was added to the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Wall this Memorial Day. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Enrique Valdez's name brings the total number of service men and women killed or missing in action to 58,261. But that wasn't the only change on The Wall this year.

Two symbols on The Wall are used to show who is missing in action, and who has been killed in action. The plus, also known as a cross, is for the missing.

This Memorial Day, the plus next to the name of Jimmy Caniford has been changed to a diamond, officially noting that the Senior Master Sergeant from Brunswick, Maryland was killed in action. His remains were recovered in Laos last year, where his gunship went down in 1972.

The official notification was a shock to his father.

"I was astounded," said his father, James Caniford, Sr. "This was possibly the fourth dig."

For more than three decades, James Caniford, Sr. wondered if his only son was a casualty, or whether he could possibly still be alive. FOX 5 spoke to him a year ago, on the day his son was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

"If you can fully comprehend what 36 years entails of not knowing where your only son is," Caniford, Sr. said. "I needed a finality to this, and today was that finality."

Jimmy Caniford was honored with a seven-gun salute, a gunship flyover, and the playing of Taps. Now, the symbol next to his name on the wall says he's no longer missing, and instead, he was killed in action while serving his country.