She spent years searching for her father who went MIA in Vietnam. What she found in the jungle provided hope.

RICHMOND, Va. — Colleen Shine spent decades searching for her father, Lt. Col. Anthony Shine, a U.S. Air Force pilot who vanished over Vietnam in 1972.

Her journey from grieving child to determined advocate ultimately brought him home. Now his story is on display at the Virginia War Memorial.

Colleen describes her father as a fun-loving and disciplined man.

"Adventuresome strong, kind of quiet," Shine said. "He was resolute you knew you could trust him if he said something it was true."

The 33-year-old airman was dedicated to his family and country. Colleen was 8 years old when her father left for his second deployment to Vietnam.

"I remember we were lined up on a fence at the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base tarmac," Shine said.

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Lt. Col. Shine wrote home regularly during his deployment. In one postcard to his daughter, he wrote: "Hi Colleen, how is your dancing coming along? When I get home you'll have to show me what you can do."

Two months after saying goodbye, the family received devastating news.

"It was December 2, 1972," Shine said. "My mom and I were at my aunt uncle's house when the car came."

During a mission over Vietnam, Lt. Col. Shine's Corsair vanished beneath cloud cover.

"He told the wing man 'I'm gonna go beneath the cloud covering for reconnaissance, but you stay up here,'" Shine said. "And so he literally disappeared. Beneath the cloud covering."

Repeated search and rescue efforts failed to locate the crash site. Lt. Col. Anthony Shine was officially listed as Missing in Action.

The Vietnam War had already taken a devastating toll on the Shine family. Anthony's younger brother John was killed two years earlier, in 1970.

"So, I learned at an early age what death meant. I was six when he was killed," Shine said.

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In the years that followed, Colleen and her mother became leading advocates in the POW/MIA cause.

"A lot of tears on the part of everybody. Really sad uncertainty is a very cruel burden to carry," Shine said.

In 1995, 23 years after her father went missing, Colleen traveled to the jungles of Vietnam to search for answers.

"I was really thinking at that point they've done their best. I need to go over and make peace with this," Shine said.

With the help of local villagers, she climbed to the site of a known crash. What she found changed everything.

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"I started finding pieces of aircraft on the surface of the ground," Shine said.

Among the wreckage: a turbine, a rusty dog tag and a helmet that left her speechless.

"I brought bags of wreckage back down the mountain, and when I met with the villager, he handed me the helmet and I turned it over... and my dad's name was handwritten inside it," Shine said.

Investigators and archaeologists returned to the site.

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Months later, the remains of Lt. Col. Anthony Shine were positively identified.

He received a long-overdue homecoming at Arlington National Cemetery.

"I'm in my heart. He's in my heart and he's in heaven," Shine said.

Colleen visits her parents in Section 60 often.

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"I take comfort that he is among fellow soldiers in a place of national honor for his service and his sacrifice and his loyalty," Shine said.

Her father may be home, but Colleen's mission is far from over. She continues to support POW/MIA families still waiting for answers.

"I feel a uniquely qualified to carry this mission on," Shine said. "I'm very rooted in the work that needs to be done today and moving forward. How do we take those lessons of the past and learn from them?"

At the Virginia War Memorial, Lt. Col. Shine's legacy endures.

His helmet, dog tag and a piece of his plane are on display in an ongoing exhibit, "Virginia's MIA: The Search Continues."

Dr. Clay Mountcastle, who marvels at Colleen's decades of determination, said the objects carry profound meaning.

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"This is the key piece of evidence that proved to Colleen that she located her father after so many years," Mountcastle said. "It really means a lot for such a small object. Those items aren't just pieces of metal and plastic. They are the artifacts of an American story. It's an amazing tale of inspiration."

"She made her mission in life to locate her father and to bring him home and exactly what she did," Mountcastle said.

For Colleen, the relics behind glass represent hope for the more than 1,500 families still waiting.

"The idea of never losing hope that someday your loved one can and will be identified and brought home. That's a spirit of this exhibit is hope," Shine said.

"It's such a grace of God that we have an answer," Shine said. "We've got 1,565 still missing from the Vietnam war."

"And that POW/MIA flag flies to say we haven't forgotten you. We're the kind of country who does not leave anyone behind," Shine said.

The exhibit "Virginia's Missing: The Search Continues" runs through the end of the year at the Virginia War Memorial.