WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Defense Secretary William Cohen on Tuesday is expected to announce the identity of an American serviceman from the Vietnam War buried at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.

The Pentagon has identified the remains as those of First Lt. Michael J. Blassie, a 24-year-old Air Force pilot who was shot down on May 11, 1972, near the southern Vietnamese village of An Loc, sources told CNN Monday. Blassie had been considered missing in action since his A-37 fighter was gunned down.

Blassie's family had urged the Pentagon to conduct modern DNA tests after news reports raised questions about the identity of the Unknown Soldier. Cohen said last month that officials had narrowed the remains down to nine likely servicemen from the Vietnam War, including Blassie. The nine families were notified of the DNA results Monday.

The remains were exhumed last month from the Tomb of the Unknowns during a ceremony presided by Cohen, who is scheduled to appear at a Tuesday news conference at the Pentagon to disclose the results of the disinterment.

The family of one of the servicemen whose remains officials believed might be in the tomb said a Pentagon official notified them that the remains were Blassie's.

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"He just said they had got the results back and that the body was Blassie's," said Althea Strobridge, the mother of Capt. Rodney Strobridge, an Army helicopter pilot who was shot down in the same area as Blassie on the same day in 1972.

Blassie's family has said they plan to bury him near their home in St. Louis, where a white marble marker in a cemetery plot reserved for the lieutenant bears his name. His family declined comment Monday until they received official confirmation of the Pentagon's findings.

"We're waiting and preparing for him to come home," his mother, Jean Blassie, said two weeks ago.

Still unresolved is whether another unknown serviceman will replace Blassie at the site of one of the nation's most sacred memorials. President Ronald Reagan honored the Unknown Soldier at a state funeral on Memorial Day in 1984, several years after government scientists ruled they did not belong to Blassie.

But DNA test methods developed since then made the identification possible. Some groups, such as the National League of POW-MIA Families, have said they opposed interring the remains of another veteran just for this reason -- advanced technology could help identify more unknowns.

A senior military officer said no decision had been made on whether a new set of remains would be placed in the tomb.

"That will be something that higher officials will have to decide," he said on condition of anonymity. He indicated the White House and Congress also would have to be consulted.

The tomb holds the remains of an unidentified U.S. soldier from World War I. Adjacent to it lie the remains of unknown service members from World War II and the Korean War.

For the other families notified Monday, the uncertaintities remain and the questions linger. "He's still MIA. I don't know whether to cry or be happy," said Mrs. Strobridge, whose son the Pentagon had said was the most likely other match to the remains.

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