11.08.02
- (Washington-AP) -- The remains of an Iowa man who was killed in Vietnam will today be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
- Sergeant First Class Robert C. O'Hara, of Lost Nation, Iowa died when the helicopter he was on crashed in February 1969 in bad weather.
- O'Hara's remains, along with those of the other two men, were recovered during search missions in 1993, 1995 and 1996.
- The remains were identified through D-N-A testing and dental records.
The other two men are Captain Ronald Briggs of Philadelphia and Major David Padgett of Washington, Indiana.
- The remains of three other men who died in the crash were identified earlier.
- © The Associated Press
When I was in ROTC, I purchased and wore a red aluminum POW-MIA bracelet for several years, because that was the sort of thing people like myself did.
When I quit ROTC, I felt a definitive lack of patriotic spirit, mostly depression-driven, and wanted to put everything and anything relating to ROTC or any other aspect of the military behind me.
The bracelet ended up in my jewelry box, where it has remained for the past ten years.
Seeing the above news report made me wonder if the POW-MIA on my bracelet had been returned, so I dug it out and looked him up on the web.
He isn't an MIA anymore. He and his co-pilot were definitively killed in action when their plane was shot down over Laos, during the Vietnam War, and their bodies were recovered and returned to the US a couple of years ago.
I thought about whether or not I should try to find his family and return the bracelet, but I decided to keep it. I read somewhere that it is courteous to send a note to the family that you have the bracelet, but that you should keep and continue to wear the bracelet until all of the lost soldiers have been returned.
I will keep the bracelet.
I will keep it and remember that while I do not agree with the conflict that is responsible for Colonel Paxton's death, he died for something he believed in enough to die, and I will respect that.
And I am happy that for at least his family, the torment of not knowing is over.
What's in your head?