Posted on 12/04/2002 7:05:06 PM PST by Sweet_Sunflower29
For the past 20 years, Brett Miller never knew the man whose name is engraved on his stainless steel bracelet.
Then he read a story in the News-Democrat on Nov. 18 about Lt. Col. Donald E. Parsons.
"It was kind of like a shot out of the blue," Miller said. "To read about someone whose name you have been wearing on your wrist off and on for 20 years was a shock. You get a feeling of gratification or satisfaction to know that it's closure."
The newspaper story told how Parsons' remains had recently been identified after having been missing for more than 30 years.
Parsons was born in Sparta on April 17, 1929. He joined the U.S. Army when he was 17 and served in both the Korean and Vietnam wars. On Feb. 6, 1969, Parsons and six other men, including a South Vietnamese major, were called to lead a mission to rescue Marines who had been stranded without food for 10 days in the Huong Hoa District, a remote area in South Vietnam.
Parsons and the crew were aboard a UH-1H Huey helicopter when they radioed that they were returning from a mission in the Quang Tri province because of poor weather conditions and reduced visibility. After that, they were never heard from again.
Parsons was 39.
Between December 1993 and October 1996, investigators from the United States and Vietnam found human remains at the crash site and submitted them to the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii for analysis.
Two years ago, Parsons' daughter, Donna Parsons Willett, was told that two teeth found at the site were identified as her father's remains.
On June 7 this year, Parsons' father was given a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. Willett said she was pleased to learn that her father died trying to save others and didn't suffer as prisoner of war, as she had feared.
Ironically, her father was buried with an MIA/POW bracelet that had belonged to her cousin. She said she and her sister also have bracelets, but she always wondered whether there was one out there with her father's name on it.
MIA/POW bracelets were first introduced 32 years ago on Veterans Day --Nov. 11, 1970 --by college students Carol Bates and Kay Hunter. They were initially made from donated copper that had the names of MIAs and POWs from the Vietnam War engraved on them to raise awareness and to create a bond between Americans and servicemen. The bracelets had the MIA's and POW's name, rank, the date they were last seen.
The bracelets were popular and more than 5 million had been distributed, but interest faded by 1976.
But interest surged again in the next decade. That's when Miller bought his bracelet. He said did some research and found that Parsons had a wife and was from Sparta, but otherwise, he never knew more than what was engraved on the bracelet: LTC Donald E. Parsons USA 2-6-69 SVM (Parsons was last seen on Feb. 6, 1969, in South Vietnam). After reading the News-Democrat's story about Parsons, he wondered whether this was the man whose name he had worn on his wrist.
On Nov. 22, he called Willett and was able to confirm that the name engraved on his bracelet was Willett's father. Willett said she was happy to hear from him.
"I think it's so neat that he's worn it for so long," Willett said.
Miller said he offered to send Willett the bracelet, but she hasn't decided if she will accept it. Miller said he would probably take a picture of the bracelet and send it to her.
"This is closure for me,"said Miller, who lives in Collinsville. "It's closure for her, for her father and I just thought it would be a good thing to do. If she doesn't want it, that's fine, I understand that."
"We haven't decided what we want to do," Willett said. "In a way, we want him to keep wearing it to remember Dad by."
Miller said he believes he got the bracelet with Parsons' name on it because they were distributed to people who came from the same state as the missing serviceman. He said he bought the bracelet because many people in his family served in the Vietnam War and he wanted to commemorate their service by remembering them and others who had served -- including servicemen he never met.
"It's not like wearing a wedding band or something, but it was a personal thing," Miller said. "You made a commitment that you would wear this until this person came home, which is what you hoped would happen. But that didn't happen."
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