News-Info-Alerts

Re: Never Losing Faith

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: November 08, 2002

"Circle closes for owner of POW/MIA bracelet
Since childhood, she'd kept faith with a stranger missing in Vietnam
DAVID PERLMUTT Staff Writer


Susan Detwiler remembers the day in 1969 when she reached into a box of silver bracelets and randomly pulled one out.

She was Susan Wilson then, a fifth-grader at Whitesburg Elementary School in Huntsville, Ala.

On the bracelet was inscribed the name "Capt. Ronald Briggs," and underneath "2-6-69," the date Briggs was reported missing in action in South Vietnam.

Young Susan was told never to get rid of the POW/MIA bracelet until she knew what had happened to Briggs. She wore it every day through high school and has kept it with her jewelry through her many moves over the years.

Thursday, after years of wondering and often checking for Briggs' name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, Detwiler, now of Charlotte, found out what happened to him.

In a "teenie" story in her morning newspaper, she read that Briggs' remains had been recovered with those of two other soldiers and today -- on the eve of Veterans Day weekend -- will be buried in a group military ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

"After all these years, it is so overwhelming to finally know," said Detwiler, who moved to Charlotte five years ago with her husband, John, and children.

"I'm sad, but also relieved that he died instantly and didn't suffer. I was so young and Captain Briggs and that bracelet were my connection to knowing someone over in that war and knowing I needed to pray for him and his family."

Telegram came on a Saturday

Briggs, the oldest of four brothers, grew up in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia. He'd spent two years in the Army, and was 24 in his first tour in Vietnam when he and five others disappeared Feb. 6, 1969, during an emergency resupply mission.Their helicopter, according to military records, crashed in the jungles of Quang Tri province after the crew radioed that they were returning because of bad weather and visibility.

A search after the crash turned up nothing.

Briggs' younger brother Walter said the telegram informing the family that Briggs was MIA was delivered by an Army officer early on a Saturday. He remembers his father taking the message, reading it, and then with a stern face retreating to his bedroom upstairs.

"He didn't show too much emotion," said Briggs, now 50, 16 when his brother died. He and his brothers and other relatives made the trip to Arlington Thursday for the ceremony.

"It was devastating to both my parents."

Ron Briggs was eight years older than Walter and his twin brother, James. To his brothers, he was a hero. He took them to movies and played sports with them. He gave them money to leave the house when he had girlfriends over.

Walter wasn't worried when his brother joined the Army and shipped out for Vietnam after officer training school. "When you're young you think nothing is going to happen."

He and his parents, Walter and Loretta, also wore the POW/MIA bracelet with Ron's name. Beginning in the late 1960s, thousands of bracelets were handed out across the country, each engraved with the name of a U.S. soldier missing or held captive. The program was begun by Americans concerned about reports of inhumane treatment of U.S. POWs.

Over the years, a few others mailed the bracelets with Ron's name to the family. Loretta died in 1988 and Walter in 1994, not knowing what happened to their son. Their bracelets were buried with them.

`A bit of closure'

As a girl, Detwiler prayed nightly for Briggs. When she lived in Washington for 14 years, she'd stop at the Vietnam wall and check for Briggs' name. Two years ago, when daughter Jennifer's fifth-grade class at Eastover Elementary School made a trip to Washington, Detwiler and Jennifer visited the wall again to see if Briggs' name had been added.

By then, his remains had been found during a search mission in 1993. Walter Briggs said the Army collected DNA from him four years ago. That was sent to the Army's central identification laboratory in Hawaii. The family was notified about a year ago that Briggs' bones and teeth had been positively identified.

Thursday, after reading the newspaper story, Detwiler ran upstairs to her jewelry box and pulled out the bracelet.

She called her parents in Florida and her girlhood friends. They all remember her wearing the bracelet.

All day, she thought about Briggs and his family. She plans to send them her bracelet.

"It was hard thinking about his parents losing a son," she said. "It breaks my heart to think about having to bury him tomorrow. I hope they find some relief, as I have."

Walter Briggs said the family has. "We have known for a year, and as the ceremony gets closer it's bringing us a bit of closure."

Thursday, he was stirred by Detwiler's story and said he would share it with the rest of his family.

"It makes me feel so happy to know that someone would feel that way about my brother and the other soldiers who sacrificed their lives," he said. "I am deeply moved just hearing about that woman in your city doing what she did for so long.

"God bless her."

Reach David Perlmutt: (704) 358-5061; dperlmutt@charlotteobserver.com "