(WSB Radio) -- A Sandy Springs pilot who was shot down and killed in the Vietnam War will be memorialized near Perimeter Mall at a ceremony today.

On March 6, 1968 Major William Henry Seward of the U.S. Marine Corps was the flight leader of two Marine CH 46-A helicopters inserting a six-man special operations team into a remote location of the Ashau Valley region near the Laotian border when his helicopter came under intense enemy fire and was shot down.

His body was recovered in 1999 and he was then buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetary in 2000.

Wayne Witter, 2006 Memorial Chairman of the Atlanta Vietnam Veterans Business Association, tells WSB's Sandra Parrish that Seward was chosen from among a list of other metro Atlantans killed in Vietnam.

"He was a career Marine and this was his second tour... he had 11 year as in the Marine Corps when he was killed in action," says Witter.

Witter says the AVVBA has been memorializing metro area soldiers killed in Vietnam for the past 20 years. Each year they place the memorial in or near the hometown of the person.

"It promises to be a very patriotic ceremony... bring your kids, your grandkids and let them see that freedom's not free, somebody paid the price to give us the life we have today that so many take for granted," he says.