A copper bracelet and a thank you.
Most readers will be way too young to remember the PIO/MIA bracelets we wore in the early 70s to remember those missing or captured in Vietnam. But for our time these were the "LiveStrong"-things we wore on our wrists.
I still remember the last name on the one I wore: Etheridge. At the time he was in the missing/POW category. Don't know why I never checked the wall, you can look up anybody with almost any tiny piece of information.
I found him on Panel 40E - Line 73 and it shows he was killed in 1968. One of the more than 58,000 known dead or missing American soldiers killed during the long ranging conflict in southeast Asia.
While sitting here I found out through the wall again that he either has a son or father still living and his email was on the wall's website so I just sent off a quick short thank you to him. We honor our Veterans and rightly so and we also honor our dead Veterans on another day but I thought I should say thanks to one of those left behind.
So to Ralph Etheridge and the millions more he represents, thank you for giving up a family member so we can enjoy our freedoms - still - every day.
I still remember the last name on the one I wore: Etheridge. At the time he was in the missing/POW category. Don't know why I never checked the wall, you can look up anybody with almost any tiny piece of information.
I found him on Panel 40E - Line 73 and it shows he was killed in 1968. One of the more than 58,000 known dead or missing American soldiers killed during the long ranging conflict in southeast Asia.
While sitting here I found out through the wall again that he either has a son or father still living and his email was on the wall's website so I just sent off a quick short thank you to him. We honor our Veterans and rightly so and we also honor our dead Veterans on another day but I thought I should say thanks to one of those left behind.
So to Ralph Etheridge and the millions more he represents, thank you for giving up a family member so we can enjoy our freedoms - still - every day.
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