POW MIA bracelet

With those words the POW MIA bracelet was born. "A simple metal band engraved with the name of a POW or MIA and the date he was lost... Don't wear it unless you want to get involved. When one assumes the one-to-one bond with a stranger who is unable to even ask for your concern, and to enter the pain of his family, something happens to you... You are taught new lessons about old concepts. Unity. Caring. Brotherhood... The bracelet is worn with the vow that it will not be removed until the day that his real status is determined or that he returns home... The bracelet is distributed by VIVA, a non-profit, non-political volunteer student organization."

And so it began.

Prior to VIVA (Voices in a Vital America), there was no public awareness other than the occasional POW picture across the cover of LIFE, LOOK and the 6 o'clock news. There was no organization for caring citizens. There was no issue for those untouched by the knock of a Casualty Officer at midnight with a telegram in hand and the words, 'we regret to inform you...'

The families were not formerly organized, most weren't even able to meet with other family members of a loss incident, they were separated. While they were working day and night trying to contact one another, meet, plan and create the original telephone tree, students and returning veterans began a grassroots movement that ultimately reverberated throughout the country and the decades.

Returning veterans wore Montagnard bracelets... hand hammered bands that reminded them of the suffering of war and its cost. On a local level a handful of POW MIA bracelets were worn, all of them simple metal bands with a hand drilled name across the front.

In Los Angeles, VIVA organizers met with returning veteran, Bob Dornan, a close friend of POW David Hrdlicka (Laos) and yet to be Congressman, and worked on the idea of a public awareness campaign based on the bracelets. The original core group was made up of Dornan, VIVA members Kay Hunter, Carol Bates, Steve Frank and VIVA advisor Gloria Coppin.

With no income or loans available, the original 1970 bracelets were made from donated brass and copper... enough to make 1,200 bracelets. Originally it was believed that only students would want to wear the bracelets, as adult interest in the issue was nonexistent. Students were turning schools and campuses upside down with protests, sit-ins, blackout class days and sadly riots and bombings. The bracelets were a peaceful means of bringing about awareness of the humanitarian tragedy that was unfolding in what would be America's longest war.

After an invitation to attend the League of Families September conference in Washington, DC, VIVA became aware that families wanted 'Their Guy's' name on the bracelets for distribution. With an official launch on Veterans Day, 1970, the interest in POW MIAs was staggering. Thousands of requests a day filtered in and along with it the small donation of anywhere from a 'buck for luck' to the requested bracelet price of $2.50 which permitted the public awareness program to author and print brochures, stickers for cars, buttons, pins and info sheets. VIVA worked with the families allowing them to keep a percentage of the monies generated so they could use it for their own POW MIA groups and activities.

By 1976, with Operation Homecoming 3 years in the past, the Carter Administration issuing Presumptive Findings of Death by the hundred the public interest in an 'old' and ugly issue died. The public was war weary and wanted to believe 'all the men are finally home' and shunned POW MIA families, activists and Vietnam veterans... and VIVA, who lit a spark that raged like an inferno, closed its doors. But not before over 5 million bracelets and untold millions of brochures, info sheets, buttons, badges and bumper stickers flooded the nation for 5 years and its conscience forever.

Over the years the original bracelet has morphed into a variety of styles... red bracelets, the original color of the POW MIA movement and the ribbons worn, became available, as well as silver, silver plated, solid brass, copper, aluminum, clear, plastic and anodized bracelets of various colors to denote status such as POW, MIA and KIA. States issued their own styles with state flags and state listings of the missing. Once the League became a National organization, the official POW MIA logo was stamped into some bracelets as well.

Some of us wear solid gold bracelets... some wear simple stamped bracelets, battered and worn, scratched and ugly... but its an ugly issue... and, some of us wear no bracelet, as the name and face of 'our guy' is stamped forever into our hearts