Kathy Strong is on a mission to honor a fallen Vietnam War soldier she never met. This week, that mission brought her to Hawaii.
In 1972 at the age of 12, she got a metal bracelet in her Christmas stocking bearing the name of Sgt. 1st Class James Moreland, a Green Beret who was last seen alive Feb. 7, 1968, while defending the American-operated Lang Vei Special Forces camp in Quang Tri province, South Vietnam.
The bracelet was one of millions distributed by the group Voices in Vital America, each engraved with the name of a missing soldier and the date they went missing in Vietnam, meant to honor those missing and held prisoner.
Those who wore the bracelets promised to leave them on until the serviceman named on the bracelet -- or their remains -- returned to the United States. The bracelets were worn by politicians, entertainers and fashion models, but few actually kept their promise, treating it as a fad.
But Strong, who lives in California, who did not come from a military family and at that time didn't know anyone who had gone to Vietnam, took her vow more seriously.
"I put it on that day, on my left wrist, and I promised to wear it until he came home, " she said. "Of course, I had no idea at the time that I'd end up wearing it over 38 years. My goal was when he came home, I was going to meet him at the airport and give the bracelet to him and give him a hug and tell him, 'Welcome home.'"
The military declared Moreland dead in 1978 after he was not included in any prisoner swaps with communist Vietnamese forces and no remains were recovered. In 1995, a team searching for remains found some at the Lang Vei Special Forces Camp and brought them to Hawaii. In 2011, the remains were finally identified as Moreland's after DNA matched samples taken from relatives.
He was buried that year in Alabama, along with Strong's bracelet. But now, after keeping her promise, Strong is still intent on honoring Moreland and has been traveling the country leaving a memorial brick at war memorials across the country, with the goal of placing one at a memorial in every state.
On Tuesday, that journey took her to Kaneohe Bay to lay a brick at the Pacific War Memorial by the entrance to Marine Corps Base Hawaii. It was an intimate ceremony attended by Strong and a handful of base staff on a sunny, breezy day as salty air blew in from the bay.
Strong stood looking at the memorial and paced around, reading the names of others commemorated on other memorial bricks surrounding it.
Initially erected to commemorate Marines who fought in the Pacific during World War II, the memorial, which is modeled after the famous Iwo Jima flag raising, has come to represent more. The names of service members from every branch and multiple conflicts now adorn bricks surrounding the memorial, including the names of merchant mariners who died serving aboard Matson vessels during World War II.
Christopher Sereno, manager of the Marina and Outdoor Recreation and Equipment Center at MCBH, said anyone who has someone they want to honor can lay a brick. "Currently there are no restrictions on that ... whatever you're putting in," he said. "We do monitor them in terms of the writing on it to ensure it's within reason on what we have in the military."
With Hawaii, Strong has now left bricks at memorials in 44 states. The remaining ones are Delaware, South Carolina, North Dakota, Maine, Wyoming and Maryland.
"I'm hoping that I can invite some VIPs in Washington, D.C., like my senator and my congressman, and some local people to come and go to the ceremony," she said. "So that's my goal. But I should be done by Veterans Day."
At each place she has been, Strong has taken pictures to send to surviving members of Moreland's unit as well as his last surviving sibling, a sister.
"I want people to think of Memorial Day as more than just a three-day weekend," she said. "It's a really important day, and James gave his life for his country, and I just think he should be honored for that sacrifice. His family has been through a lot waiting this long, 43 years, for him to come home. So I want them to know that I care."
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