Lt. E. James Broms Jr. MIA Bracelet

Lt. Edward J. “Barney” Broms was an A-4C Skyhawk pilot with attack squadron VA-66 on board the aircraft carrier Intrepid during the Vietnam War. On August 1, 1968, Broms was shot down during a strike mission on Dong Dun, North Vietnam. Broms was classified as MIA, though an incident review board determined that the probability of survival was low. In 1975, the U.S. government concluded that no Americans remained in captivity in Vietnam, and his status was changed to killed in action. In 1993, a team of American investigators, assisted by local authorities in Vietnam, found human remains at a crash site that corresponded with the location of Broms’s last flight. By 2011, advancements in DNA technology finally made it possible to positively match the remains to Broms’s sister.

Bracelets like this were first created in 1970 as a way to remember American service members who were prisoners of war or missing in action. Those who purchased the bracelets pledged to wear them until the service members, or their remains, were returned home. Approximately five million bracelets were distributed between 1970 and 1976.