In search of a veteran: Vassh Excavating seeks owner of recovered POW/MIA bracelet | Local News

So when DuVall, a mission supervisor for the corporate, was helping demolish the site at 1500 N. Memorial Drive and noticed one thing shiny inside the rubble close to a wall he was pulling down, he was naturally curious.

Upon additional inspection, he found it was a Prisoner of Battle/Lacking in Motion bracelet engraved with the title of James Okay. Patterson. Now DuVall and different Vassh staffers are hoping to attach the bracelet with its proprietor, or at the least the household of its proprietor.

“If I discover one thing, I normally decide it up,” DuVall stated. “That’s one thing we don’t usually discover.”

A POW/MIA bracelet is a nickel-plated or copper commemorative bracelet engraved with the rank, title and loss date of an American serviceman captured or lacking in the course of the Vietnam Battle.

Many individuals have commented on Patterson’s online memorial pages, sharing reminiscences or asking for Patterson to come back house. In accordance with usna63.org, a website devoted to the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1963, Patterson served within the U.S. Navy as a pilot and lieutenant commander and went lacking on Could 19, 1967. He was initially from South Pasadena, California.

He crashed on land and badly broke his leg. He maintained radio contact with rescue personnel for a interval of three days, Could 19, 20 and 21. The rescuers couldn’t elevate him on the radio on Could 22 and canceled additional rescue efforts.

He was considered captured by Russians, one of many memorial pages stated. His physique was by no means recovered.

“That’s what makes it much more attention-grabbing, you get to know the man,” Co-owner Sarah Vassh of Vassh Excavating stated. “There’s loads of historical past with him, he’s bought an entire story.”

The Vasshes researched Patterson’s life to hopefully discover a household with whom to attach the bracelet. Sarah talked about her great-grandfather was veteran.

She and different Vassh workers hope to “do extra good than we are able to now” simply holding onto the bracelet.

“Hopefully any individual misses it,” she stated. “I’m pondering somebody in his household labored right here at one level and misplaced it. There’s some historical past on this constructing.”

In addition to the POW/MIA bracelet, Vassh Excavating workers have discovered quite a few paperwork on the website, relationship way back to the Twenties. They’ve additionally discovered some underground tunnels that weren’t beforehand famous on website maps.

If Vassh can join with the proprietor, the corporate would pay for delivery, Sarah stated.

“That will be superior to present it again to them,” Vassh stated, noting it’s an excellent feeling to seek out it, however “if we are able to reunite him with this, it could make me really feel even higher. It’s so particular; it’s not only a shoe or one thing. It’s one thing memorable.”

“If something it’s a reminiscence of any individual, a souvenir,” DuVall stated. “I hope this may convey them some sort of closure in the event that they don’t (ever) discover his physique.”