Monday, February 28, 2011

For CDR Frank Green

To this day I have the first POW/MIA bracelet i received. It is plated copper and through the years it stressed and broke in half. He has the same sir name as i do. I now wear a stainless one for CDR. Frank Green, 07-10-1972.



Ron A.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

For Staff Sergeant Sandy Sanderlin

I always wore my POW/MIA bracelet and never took it off until 1975...Staff Sergeant Sandy Sanderlin...I still have my bracelet. I never heard anything and have always wondered and like others....felt very close to him. I went to the Viet Nam Wall in Washington and found a name very similar to his, I think he died. I tried to find family throughout the years and never did. I would love to give the bracelet to someone in his life to know he was not forgotten......to know that I always cared for him.......



Mary W.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

For Lt. Barton Creed

I wore a bracelet with the name Lt. Barton Creed for many years. It was a source of many debates with my family who thought it was too much to wear. I still have it. Lt. Creed was MIA. Recently a friend went to the VietNam Memorial in DC and brought me back a rubbing of Lt. Creed's name.



Marianne C.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Because Freedom is Never Free

While on active duty, the Freedom Flight with the POWs landed, I was able with the help of ground crew and medical staff, locate the exact bird the person whose name was on my bracelet was on. I was able to give him the bracelet with his name on it and explained exactly what the bracelet had meant to me and others who wore them. It was not long before everyone was wiping our eyes to remove the tears that had found their way to each of us that late afternoon.

Today, I still wear three bracelets, one for James Atlee Wheeler (17 April '65), another which list each name of those from Arizona on it and one for Michael Scott Spiker, (although his remains have been repatriated I wear it in honor of all who died in Desert Storm) I recently was able to give another one I wore of Capt. (Col now) earl Hopper Jr, who perished in '65, I was honored to know his father Col Earl Hopper Sr for several decades before his passing. I gave Earl jr's bracelet to his brothers who survived Jr after all these years and who was recently buried at the National Cemetery in Phoenix, AZ.

NEVER FORGET these brave men and women, ALWAYS REMEMBER WHY they are no with us today and that FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE, there is ALWAYS a price to be paid for it!

Aho...



Iam R.

Monday, February 21, 2011

For USAF Col. Burriss N. Begley

Back in the 70s, I had a POW/MIA bracelet. Somehow it got lost through the years. When I found the MemorialBracelets.com website, I was so excited. I now, thanks to you, wear a POW/MIA Bracelet with the name of the same man on it. I never forgot his name. When I first had the bracelet, he was on the MIA list. I have since learned he was killed. His name is Col. Burriss N. Begley, USAF, Dec. 3, 1966, North Vietnam. Somehow I feel very close to him after all these years.

Thank you so much for allowing me to continue wearing Col. Begley's name on my wrist.



Lana G.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

For my husband who served in the Iraq war


I wear my Memorial Bracelet to honor the man that was my husband. He served in Iraq in 2005 to 2006, and was a damn good soldier and a great father to our daughter. Sadly, the stuff that happened in Iraq was too much for him and he comitted suicide in 2007. I will miss him everyday I take a breath.
Heather M.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

For CPL Andrew Hutchins

My name is MAJOR David Admire.  I'm an Occupational Therapist stationed at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital at FT Campbell KY.  I met CPL Hutchins in my clinic after he fell off a guard tower last year and broke his wrist.  He was evacuated back to the States and had surgery to fix the fractured bone.  He worked extremely hard in therapy, pushing himself, striving to get back to his unit and contribute to the mission.  He never complained about the pain in rehab and was always positive and supported the efforts of other guys that he met in the OT clinic with encouraging words and a motivated - "leading from the front" example.  When he was finally cleared by his orthopedic surgeon to redeploy he was happy to finally be able to return to his unit to do his duty.  He could have easily gotten out of the deployment, but that wasn't Hutchins' style.

On November the 9th, 2010 I was in my office at the hospital at 0730, answering early morning emails and taking my first sips of coffee, when one of my NCO's came in and asked if I'd heard about Hutchins.  When I told him that I hadn't, my SGT related to me how he'd heard on the radio that a CPL Andrew Hutchins had been killed by small arms fire in Afghanistan.  I did a quick Google search of the mornings news and in fact found that the Andrew Hutchins that had worked so hard to rehabilitate his wrist had been shot and killed the day before in a fire fight.

I was stunned.  All I could do was sit and stare at the headlines on the computer screen.  Even before this horrible news, Hutchins was going to be one of those guys that I would never forget due to his amazing attitude and work ethic, not to mention his remarkable recovery from wrist surgery. 

Later that day I made up my mind that I needed to honor the memory of Hutchins in some way.  When one of my patients showed me a Memorial Bracelet that he had for another fallen hero, I knew instantly what I had to do.  A few days later, I checked the website and found Hutchins' name and vowed to order the bracelet.

I received my bracelet with CPL Andrew Hutchins' name engraved on it yesterday and immediately slipped it onto my wrist.  I have a feeling that it is going to be a part of me for a very long time.....probably for as long as his memory is a part of me.

Rest in peace Hutchins.

MAJ David Admire