Chipk
Elite Member
GOOD NEWS!!!
Recently I posted that I had been given a POW-MIA bracelet from 1970 that had been found on a local beach years ago and asked to return it to the soldier’s family.
I assumed it would be a simple process and accepted it.
BOY WAS I WRONG!!!
Everywhere I turned the doors were shut in my face. I called the VA, Find A Grave, WHITEPAGES.COM, Congressman John Rutherford, Mayor Lenny Curry, and a number of VA posts.
The soldier, PFC JEFFREY J YOUNG, was killed his first day in Vietnam. He was confirmed as killed but his unit had to leave his body behind and when they returned it was missing and never found.
Who wouldn’t want to honor the sacrifice he and his family made? Well our privacy laws stopped me at every turn.
We found a number of possible survivors in Indianapolis and I sent letters to the most likely possibilities but had no answer.
Until 2 days ago.
A sister received the letter sent to the man’s mother but was unable to respond due to illness for 10 days. We talked a long time as she tried to confirm I was legit and that the bracelet was for her brother ( his first name was misspelled on the bracelet).
Anyway it will be sent out today.
She told me her family had prepared to send a younger brother to Canada if he had been drafted but he wasn’t called. She also said time has finally softened the feeling that his death had occurred today but made it feel like it happened last week.
Of course her mother, now 93, had never gotten over it.
So for those people who tried to help me in returning this, my thanks. It’s finally done.
Recently I posted that I had been given a POW-MIA bracelet from 1970 that had been found on a local beach years ago and asked to return it to the soldier’s family.
I assumed it would be a simple process and accepted it.
BOY WAS I WRONG!!!
Everywhere I turned the doors were shut in my face. I called the VA, Find A Grave, WHITEPAGES.COM, Congressman John Rutherford, Mayor Lenny Curry, and a number of VA posts.
The soldier, PFC JEFFREY J YOUNG, was killed his first day in Vietnam. He was confirmed as killed but his unit had to leave his body behind and when they returned it was missing and never found.
Who wouldn’t want to honor the sacrifice he and his family made? Well our privacy laws stopped me at every turn.
We found a number of possible survivors in Indianapolis and I sent letters to the most likely possibilities but had no answer.
Until 2 days ago.
A sister received the letter sent to the man’s mother but was unable to respond due to illness for 10 days. We talked a long time as she tried to confirm I was legit and that the bracelet was for her brother ( his first name was misspelled on the bracelet).
Anyway it will be sent out today.
She told me her family had prepared to send a younger brother to Canada if he had been drafted but he wasn’t called. She also said time has finally softened the feeling that his death had occurred today but made it feel like it happened last week.
Of course her mother, now 93, had never gotten over it.
So for those people who tried to help me in returning this, my thanks. It’s finally done.
