When I was a young Lance Corporal, I bought a POW/MIA bracelet at the flea market (there is a Home Depot there now) in Jacksonville, NC. I picked a name whose rank was the same as mine and who went missing in Vietnam about the time I was born.
I wore his bracelet all the time at first. In the field, in garrison, at PT, and on liberty. As the years passed, I wore it less frequently. Mostly at special occasions; POW/MIA day, USMC B-day, reenlistments, promotions. The bracelet is scratched up and a little worn, but you can still make out the name and other information. When I retired, his bracelet was placed with all my old rank insignia, shooting badges, and service insignia into a small wooden box where my father had kept his medals from WWII and his father's medals from WWI.
His name is
Kurt E. LaPlant. His remains were recently
recovered and identified.
I'm thinking of trying to locate his next of kin and returning the bracelet. That, or I may place it at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial or with the
National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico.
Semper Fidelis Kurt!