Bracelet forges surprise bond
Woman finds daughter of pilot whose name she wore for 30 years
By Cindy Wojdyla Cain Special to the Daily Southtown
A click of a computer mouse solved a military mystery that had troubled Vicki Clark for 30 years.
Clark, 47, of Channahon, was accessing her computer account when she noticed a headline about the posting of 90 million military records on genealogy Web site www.ancestry.com.
Curious, she clicked on the item and followed the link. Then she typed in a soldier's name that was engraved on a POW/MIA bracelet she had since she was a girl growing up in Oswego. The bracelets were sold to raise awareness about the missing or captured soldiers.
"... I purchased a stainless (steel) bracelet with the name of Capt. Mason Burnham on it," she said. "I wore that bracelet every day for many years. I searched the papers and watched the news hoping to see Capt. Burnham's name as one of the lucky men to return to his family. I never saw it."
Clark, an administrative aide at Joliet Central High School, continued to wear her bracelet through the years. Every time she glanced at it, she thought of Burnham and wondered what became of him.
On May 24, Clark got her answer. She typed his name into the www.ancestry.com and found his birth and the day he died: April 20, 1972. Then she Googled his name, something she had never thought to do before, and found more information about his last military mission.
The plane Burnham was co-piloting was shot down near the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, she discovered.
In 1999, his remains were discovered and identified, according to a news article Clark found. The article also said Burnham's daughter claimed her father's remains and had a military burial for him.
Clark searched for the daughter on the Internet. She found her in Oregon and e-mailed her. The daughter was thrilled to hear from someone who had her dad's POW/MIA bracelet.
"She thought her dad was bringing me to her from heaven," Clark said, citing an e-mail exchange she had with Burnham's daughter.
Clark plans to mail her the bracelet as soon as the daughter returns from a vacation. Clark said it will be tough to say goodbye to a piece of jewelry that's been part of her life since she was a teen.
"I'm sad because Mason has been with me for 30 years," Clark said. "I'm sad for me, but I'm so happy for his daughter.
Since her initial discovery, Clark has continued to research the POW/MIA bracelets online. One of her high school friends, whose brother died in Vietnam, told her about a site called www.thewall-usa.com.
The site has information about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C., but it also has a bracelet exchange, where families seeking the bracelets and bracelet owners can link.
On a less positive note, Clark has also discovered that the bracelets are being sold on eBay, which she said is wrong. Clark is bidding on some of the bracelets and hopes to return some of them to the soldiers' families.
"I'm feeling very strongly about America and supporting the troops," she said. "We don't do enough to say, 'Thank you, and we remember.' "