The four sons of an Air Force pilot who died in a Vietnam prisoner-of-war camp nearly half a century ago will try to retrace their father's final steps this spring.

The oldest of Lt. Col. Wilmer Grubb's sons was 9 years old when Grubb's his plane was shot down during a reconnaissance mission in January 1966. The youngest would be born nearly 200 days after his father's capture.

Jeffrey, Roland, Stephen and Roy Grubb plan to travel to Vietnam in this April at the invitation of a Vietnamese soldier involved in the downing of the pilot's plane and his subsequent capture.

The independent Napkin Sketch Productions will document their journey as part of a feature-length documentary called "Fruits of Peace."

A Kickstarter campaign is raising funds for the project. About 15 percent of the $86,213 goal had been raised as of Feb.ruary 20.

"It's a very human story," co-producer Kevyn Settle said in an Feb. 19 interview with Air Force Times Feb. 19. "It's really about unanswered questions and moving the unknowns to knowns, removing the filters, so the family members for the first time in 50 years can just speak with those involved directly" in their father's fate.

Twenty days after Wilmer Grubb's capture, photos of him in seemingly good well health appeared in a U.S. newspaper.

United States Air Force Captain Wilmer N. Grubb is given first aid while being guarded by his captors in North Vietnam. (January 1966)

This photo of Lt. Col. Wilmer Grubb released about 20 days after he was captured led his family to believe he may have survived the war. He didn't.

Photo Credit: National Archives photo

For his sons, the photos it were proof their father was still alive. But the pilot would not make it home alive. The Vietnamese listed his date of death as Feb. 4, 1966.

Wilmer Grubb's remains were interred at Arlington National Cemetery in 1974.

When Jeff Grubb first learned about the invitation to Vietnam, "I didn't know if I could even think of going," he said in a short video posted to the Kickstarter fundraising page.

"These were the people who had changed my life forever. And yet, the opportunity they are honorably offering us is too important to turn down. I think they offer us information about our father to help give us a context of his last days and help us put an end to some of the imaginings that we've had over the years, to give us an honest set of truths as to what happened to our father after he was shot down."

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