4 minute read
California woman plans Missouri visit to honor Vietnam soldier
BY CYNTHIA J. THOMAS, Staff Writer
When Kathy Strong received a POW bracelet in 1972 engraved with the name of a missing American soldier in Vietnam, she resolved to wear it until he came home. She had no idea she would wear that bracelet for the next 38 years.
Strong, of Walnut Creek, California, was 12 years old when she received the bracelet as a Christmas gift. All she knew from the information on the bracelet was that Spec. 5 James Moreland had been missing since February 7, 1968.
“I always believed he would come home,” said Strong. She kept wearing the bracelet—to her high school prom, job interviews, and special life events. When she needed surgery on her wrist, she searched for—and found—a doctor who would do the procedure without removing the bracelet. For the first few years, she envisioned finally greeting a returning soldier at some point and showing him the bracelet. In 1975, she finally received a biography of Moreland when her mother reached out to VIVA, the Voices in Vital America student group. From it, she learned that James Leslie Moreland served as a Green Beret medic and paratrooper in Lang Vei, but she still had no idea of his fate, although he was declared dead by the government in 1978.
In February 1988, just over 20 years since Moreland had been reported missing, Strong gave a newspaper interview, hoping his family would see the story. In 2008, the story began showing up on the internet and was seen by Moreland’s sister, Linda. The women met for lunch, and Strong stayed in regular contact with the family from that point.
In January 2011, Linda called with the news that James Moreland’s remains had been found and identified; the family had waited 43 years to receive such closure. He is presumed to have died when the special forces camp came under heavy NVA tank and infantry fire and those killed had to be left behind as others were captured.
Sisters Anita and Linda invited Kathy Strong to attend the May 2011, memorial service in Alabama, where the family had grown up. At the service, then-51-year-old Strong removed the bracelet she had worn for 38 years and placed it on his dress uniform, to be buried with his remains. Her part in the story doesn’t end there, however. While visiting a Vietnam Memorial in Mississippi, she was inspired to sponsor a brick paver in Moreland’s memory. She then decided to do something similar in Pennsylvania, California, Alabama, where he had lived or had connections, and in Georgia, where he did his military training.
Then, the president of the “All 50 Club” saw Kathy’s story online and issued a certificate made out to James Moreland and Kathy Strong. It became Strong’s goal to travel with the certificate in his honor to all 50 states. Learning of Branson’s Veterans Memorial Garden, she decided a trip to place a memorial plaque there during Veterans Homecoming Week would be perfect.
Strong’s trip to the Midwest to place tribute pieces in Missouri and Kansas will be the 34th and 35th states toward her goal. She will arrive in Branson November 8. On Thursday, November 9, she will speak briefly at the 8 a.m. Tribute to Veterans at The Mansion; and at 1 p.m., she will present her tribute plaque in a ceremony at the Veterans Memorial Garden. On Friday, November 10, a presentation is scheduled in Wichita, Kansas.
This will be Strong’s first visit to Branson, but she is looking forward to the activities Jana Evans, Veterans Memorial Garden director, has scheduled to give her a taste of how Branson appreciates its veterans, and she hopes to return for a Veterans Homecoming Week again in the future.
Strong’s story has continued to capture media attention, and she hopes it will raise awareness of other families still waiting and the memory of other POW and MIA soldiers.
“I don’t have the money or time to honor every single person,” Strong said in one of her interviews, “but I feel that by honoring one person to the best of my ability, I can honor everyone who served in Vietnam.”
