Some of you that have stopped here remember it well and were personally touched by it. To the rest of you it's chapter in a history book, the past. Or is it?
2,000+ of the men we sent there have not returned. Parents, wives, brothers, sisters, children and other friends and relatives wait for the return of their loved ones, some not even knowing their fate.
I wore a strange piece of jewelry as a teenage girl. But unfortunately it was not so strange during that time. A lot of my friends wore this same bracelet only the names imprinted on them were different. I find it a horrible commentary to say that as I enter my middle years I am creating web pages for the men who fought in the same war and for the same reason. All of our men are not home yet. A full accounting has not been made.
Isn't it about time? These men deserve at the very least to rest in the soil of the country they loved enough to give their lives for. Is this too much to ask of the government that sent them there? Larry, I and many others think it is not.
I had the opportunity to visit The Wall and until then I did not realize the full magnitude of our country's loss. I remember the first moment I saw that monument to the lost of Vietnam. I must have looked quite stricken because as I looked at the expanse of this wall of names and tears came to my eyes I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked to see a vet of that war who offered me comfort and directed me on how to locate the name I was looking for. I found Capt. Sijan's name but I found more there in the tributes and the eyes of the other visitors that cannot be put into words. There is a very different feeling in that place, different than any other memorial I visited that day. A solemn place of many quiet tributes. I saw an old man in a wheelchair struggle to rise under his own power to salute a name on that wall-the name of his missing son. I know this from his wife's tribute of a single red rose with the one word "Son" written on the card. There were many who walked the length of that wall with me that day searching for that one name that meant something to them.
Now let all of us that have waited for word, and searched that wall for a name join together and say enough! Now is the time for a total and complete accounting. Now is the time for us to join together and let it be known that this has gone on too long.
Below please take the time to write to the officials of our government and tell them that it is past time for a full and complete accounting of our POWs and MIAs.
The following two pages are dedicated to Donald Elliot Westbrook the man Larry and I have adopted who remains unaccounted for. Capt. Lance Peter Sijan whose bracelet I wore as a young girl whose remains were returned March 13, 1974. Click on their name to bring up their page. Please take the time to read about these men who gave everything for the freedom we enjoy today.