I dug through a box in the basement and found an old jewelry box I kept as a young girl. In a pile of strange memorabilia, I found what had been bugging me. My POW bracelet from the 1970s.
My experience with the Vietnam War was watching news coverage and the fact that a friend of my family's lost their son over there. My recollection is that there was an ad in the back of a magazine and you could order a POW bracelet.
When I received my bracelet it was engraved with "Capt Ronald Packard, 7-31-67" and it came with the name and address of his wife. For quite a while we exchanged letters -- there were no computers, etc. -- so snail mail was the way to go. I remember stationery with daisies, my "I's" had hearts over them. His wife's name was Shari, she lived in Colorado, and we would write each other about mundane issues. As I think of it now, how hard must this have been for his wife? Her husband was MIA, possibly a POW and there she was corresponding to a little kid.
Here is a link about these bracelets from back in the day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POW_bracelet
Years past and whenever that day came that I put this bracelet in the box, I'm ashamed that it was forgotten for all this time.
Now that there is Google, I was able to find out more about Capt Packard. To connect a face and history with my long ago involvement brought tears to my eyes. As an adult, and the Mother of a USMC veteran, I am devastated that he went missing when he was only 25 years old. Only one year older than my son is now.
After finding his history, I learned that his remains were found and he was buried in 1997 at Arlington with full military honors. Captain Ronald L. Packard memorial info.
Also through Google, I believe I found his widow and I have reached out to her to see if she or anyone in her family might like to have me mail the bracelet to them. Stay tuned!
RIP Captain Packard and know that long ago, a young girl, kept you in her prayers.
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