Woman REdiscovers Bracelet with Name of Vietnam POW
By Sue Chenoweth
Mercury News
U.S. Navy Capt. Leo T. Profilet was a stranger to Tonyia Lackey in 1970, when the 13-year-old Texas girl placed a band on her wrist bearing the name of the Vietnam prisoner of war. By then, the downed fighter pilot had already endured two years in solitary confinement at the notorious Hanoi Hilton.
``I thought if I wore the bracelet and prayed for him, Captain Leo would be safe,'' said Lackey, who was a parochial school student at the time.
By the time Profilet was reunited with his family in Palo Alto three years later, Lackey's bracelet was tucked away in an apple box, affectionately stored with other special belongings. Two weeks ago, Lackey rediscovered the apple box, with the bracelet inside, in a far corner of her attic in Nederland, Texas.
``All the years since,'' Lackey said, ``I have never stopped wondering about Captain Leo and his family.''
She gave the bracelet to her cousin, whose husband searched for Profilet on the Internet. They discovered that the decorated Vietnam veteran and father of four children had been an electrical engineer for Westinghouse in Sunnyvale who enjoyed online chats with former POWs every morning and had died in January of a heart attack at age 75.
At a celebration of his life at Arlington National Cemetery in the spring, his family set out a basket to offer others keepsakes to remember him: Inside were about 75 POW bracelets sent over the years by strangers who wore Profilet's name on their wrists.
Lackey's bracelet was one of 5 million sold by a student group that launched the program on Veterans Day 34 years ago to remember the soldiers who were missing or held captive during a controversial war.
The non-profit organization Voice in a Vital America raised more than $10 million with the bracelets to heighten consciousness about America's thousands of missing soldiers in Vietnam.
Liz Flick bought her first bracelet in 1972. When her missing soldier returned four years later, Flick replaced his band with bracelets for two other soldiers that she continues to wear.
``I guess I took my vows seriously,'' said Flick, a decadeslong volunteer for the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia. She resurrected the bracelet campaign in 1984 to help fill the many requests from people who still wanted bracelets.
A disabled Vietnam veteran in Arizona makes the stainless steel bracelets, which Flick sells for $8 apiece from her home in Ohio. Proceeds help keep pressure on the Vietnamese government to account as fully as possible for the 1,849 soldiers still missing, Flick said.
Several for-profit vendors also produce POW/MIA bracelets, Flick said. ``But that seems totally wrong to me.''
Over the years Flick has replaced bracelets that have broken or worn out and has filled orders from military personnel overseas, including soldiers in Iraq. ``They know we'll be there for them until they come home,'' Flick said.
Even though the group's focus is on the Vietnam War, last year Flick filled bracelet requests for Iraq war POW Jessica Lynch and a few missing soldiers who didn't come back.
Lackey's nickel-plated band cost $2.50 in 1970 -- the price of student admission to a movie the year the seventh-grader asked her cash-strapped single mom to buy her one.
``We never went to the movies or out to eat,'' Lackey said. ``So it was something special for my mom to buy it for me.''
When a POW came home, it was customary for a person with his bracelet to return it to the soldier or his family. But the Texas teen didn't know that.
``I really thought I was the only one who had his bracelet back then,'' said Lackey, a 47-year-old homemaker. ``I would have loved talking to Captain Leo on the phone, telling him that although he had family and friends, there was a complete stranger -- a 13-year-old -- also thinking and praying for him.''
Her discovery of the apple box in the attic came nine months too late for that conversation.
``Leo was always amazed by the love and remembrance for him and the other `jailbirds,' '' wife Sue Profilet said.
She is aware of at least 75 or so bracelets that were returned. ``As far as I know,'' Sue Profilet said, ``Leo may have another boxful.'' Bracelets continue to trickle in, she said, from well-wishers all over the country.
Sue Profilet said she will encourage Lackey to hold on to her bracelet when they finally talk, adding: ``Those people are so special, aren't they?''
For information about National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, see http://members.aol.com/usaheroes/natlf.htm or call (703) 465-7432. Contact Sue Chenoweth at schenoweth@mercurynews. com or (650) 688-7572.