News-Info-Alerts

Re: Woman Meets POW on Her Bracelet

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: November 21, 2003

"Woman, ex-POW talk after 30-year delay

By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON mmillhollon@theadvocate.com
Advocate staff writer

As a high school student in New Orleans during the Vietnam War, Margaret Humphris paid $1 to pluck a POW/MIA bracelet from a box.

She didn't know the prisoner of war whose name was engraved on the band. But she wore the bracelet for years.

"It's just what we did to keep them in our minds and prayers," she explained recently.

The simple metal straps were suggested by Bob Dornan, a former California congressman and news correspondent.

Dornan wore a Vietnamese friendship bracelet as a reminder of the suffering that war spawns.

He also had a friend who was held captive in Laos.

At a 1970 meeting with the families of prisoners of war and of soldiers missing in action, Dornan proposed putting their loved ones' names on bracelets to publicize their plight.

The bracelet program officially began on Veterans Day 1970 with three college students making the trinkets. By the end of the Vietnam War, there were 3 million bracelets in circulation.

Humphris bought her bracelet at O. Perry Walker High School. She remembers boxes bulging with bracelets being brought to school.

The war was confusing to her, as it was to many others from her generation.

Humphris remembers watching her brother's number come up that determined where he fell in the draft. Then she looked at her birthdate and realized she would have been drafted had she been a man.

Then there were the war protests.

"I was a kid," she said. "I didn't understand what it was all about. It was hard to figure out what was going on. Certainly I felt a lot of compassion for the people who were serving."

After buying the bracelet, Humphris watched the news every night for the update on returning soldiers.

"I would watch every night to see if my guy was coming home," she said.

One night in 1973, when Humphris was 16, she heard the name of her POW on the evening broadcast.

After nearly seven years as a captive in Vietnam, Lawrence Barbay was coming home to Baton Rouge. He would meet the daughter born 10 days after his plane was downed and would mourn his father, who died while he was still in a prison camp.

Barbay received a hearty homecoming. At the city limits, a police escort met his car and led him to a downtown courtroom, where the mayor and 400 people were waiting to welcome him home.

Humphris wasn't among the well-wishers.

"Being 16, I didn't know how to get in touch with him," she said.

Thirty years would pass before Humphris and Barbay would speak.

In the meantime, Barbay retired from the U.S. Air Force, became a college professor and settled in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Agatha.

Humphris now works as a social worker in Baton Rouge.

Recently she was tidying her office at LSU Mental Health Service when she noticed a newspaper that had been left in the room by accident.

She glanced at the front page and saw Barbay's name.

"It just gave me chills," she said.

Barbay, now 69, was in Baton Rouge to be inducted into the Louisiana Veterans Hall of Honor at the USS Kidd and Nautical Center.

Addressing the crowd outside the Kidd on Veterans Day, Barbay didn't dwell on his POW experiences. Instead, he spoke about his family, friends and faith.

"Without the grace of God, I wouldn't be here," he said.

A few hours later, the phone rang at Humphris' office. It was Barbay, who learned earlier in the day from an Advocate reporter that she had worn a bracelet with his name on it when she was in high school. Humphris had called The Advocate asking how to get in touch with Barbay. The reporter told Barbay about the request, and he called Humphris.

Barbay told Humphris about his family and asked a little bit about her.

Neither had much time to talk. Barbay had friends and family to visit before returning to Texas. Humphris was in the middle of a session with a client.

Despite its brevity, Humphris said she treasures the conversation.

"He was just so nice and genuine and warm," she said. "It was really wonderful."

Michelle Millhollon is a general assignment reporter for The Advocate. "