News-Info-Alerts

Re: Patriot Bracelets

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: March 31, 2003

"Patriotic Bracelets To Support Troops
 
By KOMO Staff & News Services


SALEM - An Oregon company this week began making and selling slim red and blue anodized aluminum bracelets similar to the POW/MIA bands that wrapped 5 million wrists during the Vietnam War.

"It's really patriotic," said John Salstrom, one of the company's owners. "It makes us feel good to do it."

Proceeds from the lightweight bracelets, which cost $8, or $11 if they're personalized, will go to support needy families of deployed Oregon National Guard members.

The generic version carries two inscribed lines. The top reads, "Operation Iraqi Freedom." The bottom: "Until they all come home."

Personalized versions may carry the names of deployed soldiers, or those missing in action, such as U.S. Army Sgt. Donald Walters, a Salem native and one of eight soldiers serving in Iraq who are missing from the Army's 507th Maintenance Company.

Three days ago, Walters' sister, Kimberly, walked into the trophy company to see if it would make buttons featuring her brother's picture. When she saw the bracelets, she asked for a few inscribed with his name.

That simple act of support sent the company into high gear. When news crews noticed Kimberly Walters' bracelet, the phone at Salem Trophy started ringing. Thursday, orders came in for more than 30 bracelets; Friday, more than 50. The rush, apparently, is on -- a week or two before the company was ready for it.

Salem Trophy started talking to the National Guard about the idea two weeks ago and was due to firm up details next week. Instead, the company's six employees are working day and night to produce the patriotic product. It now has hundreds in stock.

"It's work that people don't mind doing," Salstrom said.

During Operation Desert Storm, the company made similar bracelets for the American Legion, which sold about 15,000 of them.

This time around, proceeds will benefit the program that supports family members of the National Guard's 1,249th Engineer Battalion, which mobilized 466 soldiers this week. Nearly 2,800 Oregon Army and Air National Guard troops are on active duty.

Bracelets supporting service members first surfaced in 1970, when a Los Angeles student group, Voices in Vital America, searched for ways to support U.S. soldiers who were prisoners of war or missing in action, without becoming embroiled in the controversy over the Vietnam War.

They found inspiration wrapped around the wrist of Bob Dornan, a Vietnam veteran who later served in Congress. He wore a bracelet he had brought back from Vietnam to remind him of the suffering the war had wrought.

Eventually, the bracelets became nearly as ubiquitous as wristwatches during the '70s and raised awareness of missing and imprisoned soldiers.

For More Information:

You can write to the company and they will send you an order form. Don't forget to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.


* Salem Trophy Company
* P.O.Box 15022
* Salem, OR 97309"