In the other 1970s , two college students felt compel to take legal action during a time when most Americans felt particularly helpless and even hopeless . The war inVietnamhad been raging since the 1950s , but it wasn’tuntil 1964that a pilot named Everett Alvarez , Jr. became the first United States prisoner of war ( prisoner of war ) , which lead President Lyndon B. Johnson to increase thedraftto 35,000 troops each month . Within a few years , 100 of American soldier were dying each week and many more were take as POWs or deliberate miss in action ( MIA ) .
Carol Bates Brown and Kay Hunter , described astwo " sorority - type " college scholar in Los Angeles , want to find a way to put up families some solace . The twocame upwith a fresh idea : making watch bracelet to commemorate the American prisoners of war suffering in captivity in Southeast Asia . By the recent ' LX , Brown dish out as the National Chairman of the POW / MIA Bracelet Campaign for VIVA ( Voices In Vital America ) , the Los Angeles based student organization that produced and distributed the wristband .
In 1969 , television personality Bob Dornan ( who would later be elected to Congress ) introduced Brown , Hunter and several other members of VIVA to three married woman of missing U.S. buffer . The women asked the student group to aid draw public attention to those missing in Vietnam . While petitions and protests were certainly options , Brown and Hunter " were looking for ways college students could become involved in positive programs to support U.S. soldiers without becoming embroil in the controversy of the state of war itself . "
And so , the bracelets became a major part of the publicity program . Dornan had begin bust a bracelet he got in Vietnam from native hill tribesman , which he say reminded him of the agony that resulted from the war . " We wanted to get similar wristband to wear to remember U.S. POWs , so rather naively , we tried to figure out a way to go to Vietnam , " Brownwrote in an articleon the stock of the bracelets . " Since no one need to fund two sorority - girlfriend types on a duty tour to Vietnam during the tallness of the state of war , and our parents were ashen at the mind , we gave up … "
It was then that Hunter begin look into way to make bracelets but ended up leaving oral exam . Brown then collaborated with scholarly person Steve Frank and adult advisor Gloria Coppin to act on the POW / MIA cognisance broadcast .
Whilesignificantly fewerAmericans were taken captive during Vietnam versus previous wars ( 726 compared to more than 4,000 duringWorld War I , 130,000 during World War II , and 7,000 - plus in Korea ) , family were far more aware of their hurt . In an effort to press out public support for the warfare , North Vietnamese soldiers publicly displayed POWs in propaganda effort . Americans wanted to fag out their support on their sleeve ; Brown and her team bump a style to permit citizen to wear it on their radiocarpal joint .
In later summertime 1970 , Coppin ’s husband donated enough boldness and bull to make 1,200 bracelets at 75 centime a pop , which the VIVA team sell to student for $ 2.50 and to adults for $ 3 . Each bracelet was engraved with the name , membership , serving , loss date and country of loss of a missing soldier .
" On Veterans Day , November 11 , 1970 , we formally kicked off the bangle program with a news conference at the Universal Sheraton Hotel , " Brown write . " Public response quickly develop and we finally got to the stop we were have over 12,000 request a twenty-four hour period . " The income let VIVA to pay for promotional items like bumper stickers and buttons and gave bracelets to relatives of miss soldiers so that they could be sell on cargo . By the meter VIVA close its doors in 1976 , the organization had deal out nearly 5 million bracelets and had " farm enough money to farm untold millions of bumper stickers , buttons , pamphlet , matchbooks , newsprint ads , etc . to pass care to the missing men . "
Brown says the populace was tired of hearing about Vietnam by then and " showed no interest in the POW / MIA issue " butmemorial braceletsare still available for sale , even today andnews storiescontinue to recount the legends associated with the original items .
