thedrifter
08-28-04, 06:50 AM
Utahn completes Viet War quest
By Wendy Leonard
Deseret Morning News
What began as a national campaign for hope brought closure this week for one patriotic Utahn and a family who lost their soldier to captors in Vietnam many years ago.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans obtained POW/MIA bracelets during a '70s movement to bring soldiers home from the Vietnam War. Dayle R. Thomas, Woods Cross, purchased one for only a couple of dollars. Hers contained the following inscription: CDR Kenneth R. Cameron, 5/18/67.
"It was very special to me," Thomas said. "All I could do was hope that someday, someone would look for it."
Nearly half a century later, Thomas was contacted by Cameron's granddaughter, Heather Long, of West Virginia. They had found each other through a Vietnam War Memorial Web site listing family members looking for bracelets and owners of bracelets looking for surviving family members.
The bracelets, which were made available to the public in 1970, were developed by a Los Angeles-based volunteer student organization, Voices in Vital America. The group wanted to draw public attention to those held prisoner or missing in Vietnam. At the time, returned veterans wore Montagnard bracelets made of pounded metal to remind them of the suffering and pain of war. A similar item seemed appropriate to the group's founders as a symbol of those suffering in captivity of Southeast Asia.
The bracelet became a commonly worn item of jewelry and was often made of gold, silver, stainless steel, colored aluminum, copper or brass. It contained, at minimum, the name, rank and date of loss of an "unaccounted for" man serving in Vietnam.
VIVA sold and distributed more than 5 million bracelets with the mantra, "Don't wear one unless you want to get involved."
Thomas did just that. She wore the bracelet for many years and never found "her POW." The bracelet was tucked away in a jewelry box awaiting what would be a just reunion.
"I never really gave up," she said. "I kept thinking something would come or his name would be posted." She said that being raised with a father in the military, she had learned to respect war and its casualties.
Thomas is still considering one day meeting the family she's held near to her heart for so long.
"It's almost like I've known him all this time," she said.
Kenneth Robbins Cameron was a captain in the Navy and a Skyhawk pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 76 on board the Bon Homme Richard, which patrolled the coastal waters of Vietnam in January 1967, as recorded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
On May 18, 1967, he launched a mission in his A4C near the city of Vinh in Nghe An Province, North Vietnam. During the mission, as he was about five miles north of the city, Cameron's aircraft was shot down. Cameron ejected from the aircraft and was captured. After being held for three years and five months, he died in captivity, according to the Vietnamese. It was another four years before the Vietnamese returned his remains to U.S. control. He is buried, along with his wife, in Arlington Cemetery.
Long has collected several bracelets containing her grandfather's name. She plans to give them to each of his five children, as a token of his service and a remembrance of him.
"My family means the world to me and I know that the bracelets would be a priceless gift to them," Long said in an e-mail.
Jack Wilt of Indiana was in the U.S. Air Force and returned from Vietnam in 1971. Thereafter, he purchased a POW/MIA bracelet with Cameron's name on it at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, not far from his home.
"It meant something to me," he said, "but not as much as it would to the family of the fallen hero." Wilt said it not only represented one man, but all that gave their lives. He said he felt as though he also would have liked to know Cameron.
Wilt returned his bracelet to Long last week.
"I am very proud and honored that I could help this man, and help his family," Thomas said. "There is a sense of loss for me, while also I am comforted to know that he is where he belongs, in American soil, in Arlington. (The bracelet) has been very special to me but it will be where it belongs — with his family."
Out of honor and respect for Capt. Cameron, Thomas has lowered her flag to half-staff until Long acknowledges receipt of the bracelet, which she sent off Tuesday. She said the whole experience has been very personal, emotional and touching to her.
"Our kids need to know how important it is to our veterans that we show them this kind of respect," she said.
In May of this year, the Department of Defense listed 1,859 Americans still missing or unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.
Cameron's biography states, "The problem of Americans still missing torments not only the families of those who are missing, but the men who fought by their sides, and those in the general public who realize the full implication of leaving men unaccounted for at the end of a war."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com
http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595087082,00.html
Ellie
By Wendy Leonard
Deseret Morning News
What began as a national campaign for hope brought closure this week for one patriotic Utahn and a family who lost their soldier to captors in Vietnam many years ago.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans obtained POW/MIA bracelets during a '70s movement to bring soldiers home from the Vietnam War. Dayle R. Thomas, Woods Cross, purchased one for only a couple of dollars. Hers contained the following inscription: CDR Kenneth R. Cameron, 5/18/67.
"It was very special to me," Thomas said. "All I could do was hope that someday, someone would look for it."
Nearly half a century later, Thomas was contacted by Cameron's granddaughter, Heather Long, of West Virginia. They had found each other through a Vietnam War Memorial Web site listing family members looking for bracelets and owners of bracelets looking for surviving family members.
The bracelets, which were made available to the public in 1970, were developed by a Los Angeles-based volunteer student organization, Voices in Vital America. The group wanted to draw public attention to those held prisoner or missing in Vietnam. At the time, returned veterans wore Montagnard bracelets made of pounded metal to remind them of the suffering and pain of war. A similar item seemed appropriate to the group's founders as a symbol of those suffering in captivity of Southeast Asia.
The bracelet became a commonly worn item of jewelry and was often made of gold, silver, stainless steel, colored aluminum, copper or brass. It contained, at minimum, the name, rank and date of loss of an "unaccounted for" man serving in Vietnam.
VIVA sold and distributed more than 5 million bracelets with the mantra, "Don't wear one unless you want to get involved."
Thomas did just that. She wore the bracelet for many years and never found "her POW." The bracelet was tucked away in a jewelry box awaiting what would be a just reunion.
"I never really gave up," she said. "I kept thinking something would come or his name would be posted." She said that being raised with a father in the military, she had learned to respect war and its casualties.
Thomas is still considering one day meeting the family she's held near to her heart for so long.
"It's almost like I've known him all this time," she said.
Kenneth Robbins Cameron was a captain in the Navy and a Skyhawk pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 76 on board the Bon Homme Richard, which patrolled the coastal waters of Vietnam in January 1967, as recorded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
On May 18, 1967, he launched a mission in his A4C near the city of Vinh in Nghe An Province, North Vietnam. During the mission, as he was about five miles north of the city, Cameron's aircraft was shot down. Cameron ejected from the aircraft and was captured. After being held for three years and five months, he died in captivity, according to the Vietnamese. It was another four years before the Vietnamese returned his remains to U.S. control. He is buried, along with his wife, in Arlington Cemetery.
Long has collected several bracelets containing her grandfather's name. She plans to give them to each of his five children, as a token of his service and a remembrance of him.
"My family means the world to me and I know that the bracelets would be a priceless gift to them," Long said in an e-mail.
Jack Wilt of Indiana was in the U.S. Air Force and returned from Vietnam in 1971. Thereafter, he purchased a POW/MIA bracelet with Cameron's name on it at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, not far from his home.
"It meant something to me," he said, "but not as much as it would to the family of the fallen hero." Wilt said it not only represented one man, but all that gave their lives. He said he felt as though he also would have liked to know Cameron.
Wilt returned his bracelet to Long last week.
"I am very proud and honored that I could help this man, and help his family," Thomas said. "There is a sense of loss for me, while also I am comforted to know that he is where he belongs, in American soil, in Arlington. (The bracelet) has been very special to me but it will be where it belongs — with his family."
Out of honor and respect for Capt. Cameron, Thomas has lowered her flag to half-staff until Long acknowledges receipt of the bracelet, which she sent off Tuesday. She said the whole experience has been very personal, emotional and touching to her.
"Our kids need to know how important it is to our veterans that we show them this kind of respect," she said.
In May of this year, the Department of Defense listed 1,859 Americans still missing or unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.
Cameron's biography states, "The problem of Americans still missing torments not only the families of those who are missing, but the men who fought by their sides, and those in the general public who realize the full implication of leaving men unaccounted for at the end of a war."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com
http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595087082,00.html
Ellie