I have just become number 631 on the list! There is no reason why the Captain's remains should not be returned to America at once! I truly hope that your effort is successful.
That mission has a lot of significance to me on a "not nearly as personal" level. I worked from 1980 through 1999 on the AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti Radar Missile) program at Texas Instruments / Raytheon. I built and maintained the electronic test equipment that was used to run factory acceptance tests on the HARM guidance section. The Libyan strike was the very first time that HARM was used in combat, and I had actually handled the guidance sections from a couple of the missiles that were fired on that strike. Our missiles performed flawlessly, but the aftermath of that mission brought us a big scare. It seems that the Libyans found a mostly-intact aluminum bulkhead from the rear of a guidance section which was silkscreened, "For warranty service, return to Texas Instruments, Lewisville, Texas"!!!
A photo of that item appeared on the front page of the Tripoli newspaper the day after the attack! Direct threats were issued from "somewhere over there" against TI, so almost immediately, earthen berms were built around our plant along the highways that bordered two sides of the property (to keep "bad guys" from being able to take pot-shots at the building from passing cars), all entry/exit gates were blocked off except for the main gate, and Pinkerton guards armed with submachine guns were put on patrol around the property! Those were some tense times at the ol' TI-Lewisville plant! Eventually, things returned to normal (thankfully!).
I later met one of the F/A-18 pilots who flew that strike. He was with his Hornet at an air show at the old Dallas NAS. The public were allowed to climb up the boarding ladder and peep into the cockpit while he stood on a maintenance stand on the other side and explained things. When I told him that I worked for TI building HARM, his face lit up, he told me that he flew that mission and fired his HARMs, and then he invited me to sit in the cockpit!
After about five minutes, I figured I'd better get out and let the rest of the (now somewhat angry) crowd have a look. When the next guy tried to climb into the jet, the pilot stopped him. He said, "But you let that other guy get in!", to which the pilot replied, "Yeah, but he was a friend of mine!" I walked away from that jet feeling like I was ten feet tall!
Epilogue: Raytheon closed the Lewisville facility in 1999 and consolidated the operations mainly into their facilities in Tucson. It's now an office park. I got out of the missile business and moved on to another Raytheon plant in Dallas.
Cheers!
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