They met at a fraternity party in Baltimore the year before he left to attend the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Three years later, she slipped a ring on his finger at the academy’s “ring dance” — and 12 months later, he gave her an even more precious ring as John and Mary Dunham were married on the day he graduated from Annapolis, class of 1950.

The Cold War had begun — and John volunteered to accept a commission to fly with the newly formed Air Force as a navigator in a B-29. On Oct. 7, 1952, John’s plane, the Sunbonnet King, was ambushed by two Soviet fighters as it flew a reconnaissance mission near the Japanese island of Yuri. From the deck of his patrol vessel, Sgt. Vasily Saiko, of the Soviet Maritime Border Guard, saw the plane come down. He was assigned the grim task of recovering the remains of the downed American air crew. Before sending the bodies off for burial, he discreetly slipped a large gold ring off the finger of one member of the crew in the hope that he might someday return it to his family.

The news of the plane being shot down made international headlines. Back home, Mary was caring for their 6-week-old daughter when military officers arrived at her door. They told her John’s plane had gone down and that he was officially missing in action. Hoping he was alive, yet fearing he was enduring torture in a Soviet prison, Mary began a long and difficult wait. For the next three years, she continued to hope that John would be found; instead, the military formally declared him to have been killed in action. Three more years passed, when on a Sunday morning in a church in Baltimore, Mary’s heart was calmed with the assurance that John was in the presence of God. But still, she wondered what had happened to the precious father of their daughter, Suzanne, who had become the center of her world.

Fast-forward to 1993. Vasily Saiko, now an old riverboat captain, was watching television coverage of the Joint Soviet-American Commission on POW-MIA affairs. He knew it was finally time to tell his story. For more than 40 years, he kept the big gold ring near him, even refusing a friend’s offer to trade a car to him for it — because he clung to the hope of returning it to its American family.

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Vasily took a 24-hour train ride to Moscow, and was soon brought before a rather daunting group of American and Soviet officials. There was an audible gasp when he pulled from his pocket the Naval Academy ring. He had never been able to read the English letters inscribed inside it, but one of the Americans quickly told him that the ring belonged to John Robertson Dunham. Saiko would later say it was the proudest moment of his life.

At 6 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1993, Mary’s phone rang at her home in Baltimore. A member of the American Embassy staff in Moscow called to tell her the news. Her husband’s ring had been found, and the story of how he died was finally fully known. Nine months later, Air Force Capt. John “Chute” Dunham’s remains were buried at Arlington Cemetery with full military honors.

Mary still lives in Baltimore. I talked to her this week and asked her what message she thought her story told. She said, “It sounds very cliché, but freedom’s never free.” This weekend, at Mary’s home, a gold star flag will be flying to remind us that some of our neighbors have paid the ultimate price for our freedom. Mary, our nation owes you a debt of gratitude we can never repay — but from all your neighbors, thank you.