I bought my first POW/MIA bracelet while a teenager in junior high school. It was a fad then, everyone had one...I really knew nothing about the war, the reason we were there or the conflicts on the home front that it had created.
There were two kinds of bracelets back then, put out by VIVA (Voices in Vital America) ...mine was stainless steel and the other one was copper. Now there are red, blue and even black ones which denote killed in action ( KIA).
I wore my bracelet for years, wrote to all the organizations I could. I amassed buttons (such as these), bumper stickers, and the 45 rpm record "How do you tell a small boy", but could get very little information on the man who's name was on my wrist for so long. I did learn that he was killed in action and that his body was returned...but at the time, they couldn't tell me when.
In the interim, I had been reading all I could about POW-MIA's and the Vietnam War and I wound up getting sidetracked into the music of the mid/late 60's (protest music of the 60s...Phil Ochs and Buffalo Springfield). Then call it fate or something but while going through an old LIFE magazine that I had picked up at a yard sale (dated Nov 7, 1969) for the article "The case of the "missing" Beatle" -I found a feature article about the wife of the POW/MIA I was wearing!!!!
1972 Newspaper picture of Arthur Mearns
Cover of Life magazine
The article went on to say that Pat (his wife) and their two daughters(then 6 & 8 years old )had moved to Los Angeles, California, and as of 1969 she had had no word of his fate. That she had joined the League of Families of American Prisoners and had gone to Paris to seek out the whereabouts of her husband and the other POWs. It was the first time I saw a photo of him and then he became a reality for me - a real person, not just a name engraved on a bracelet...not just a name carved onto a black granite wall.
His official home of record is Great Neck, New York He was born on Friday, July 12, 1929 He joined the service on May 23,1952. He squadron was based in Yokota, Japan. He was shot down as a
Major (04) in the United States Air Force. He was a pilot on a fixed wing aircraft, a F105D He was promoted to a Colonel (06) by the time his remains were sent back to the U.S He was shot down on Friday, November 11, 1966 and was 37 years old at the time. He died of unknown causes while missing after he crashed on land in North Vietnam He was shot down by ground fire in the Quang Ninh Province near Dinh Lap, 15 miles from China His wingman believed he ejected and parachuted out of his aircraft His coordinates (Lat./Long) were 211359 N & 1070457 E His reference # was 0519-0-01 His body was returned home on September 30, 1977 He can be visited at the Wall in Washington, D.C - Panel 12E -- Row 55 He was
buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington Virginia on November 11, 1977His grave location in Arlington is Section 11, grave #404-2.Tribute by Hon. Robert K. Dornan, CA, read into the Congressional record on December 1, 1977. According to another pilot (James Hiteshew) he flew with on that fateful day, "Art was a great guy, easy to get along with and commanded the respect of everybody"
Colonel Mearns is also mentioned in Jack Broughton's books "Thud Ridge" and "Going Downtown"
|
This POW/MIA Ring
site |
If you have any more information on Col. Arthur S. Mearns that I do not have here, or see something I need to correct I would appreciate hearing from you. If this site or any of its contents, for any reason offends the family of Arthur Mearns, I will gladly remove it.
UPDATE:
This month (Nov 2000) I was contacted by the family who happened upon this remembrance page.
They have shared some photos, memories, information and newspaper clippings with me.
I am very grateful for the recent e-mails and phone calls from a family whom I've thought about for years, but never ever knew.
Please check back for additions, corrections and pictures.
I can be reached at [email protected]
Vietnam War Internet Project Library of Congress POW/MIA Database Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall Page Vietnam Veterans of America Advocacy & Intelligence Index for POW-MIA POW/MIA Search by Scope Systems 
What you can do to help. Write letters to:
The White House Address
1600 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington, D.C. 20500
Phone: (202) 456-1414
Fax: (202) 456-2883
Let Your Voices Be Heard By E-Mail !
Let everyone know that we want a full account of *every* missing man and woman in Southeast Asia.
Where to contact your Government Officials:
Send E- Mail to the President
Send E- Mail to the Vice President
Send E- Mail to the First Lady
House of Representatives e-mail by State
GOP Post Office
This Operation Just Cause Web Ring site is owned by
Ellen Karp |
LIFE magazine 11/7/69 by Time Inc. for the behind the scenes look at a POW wife - pages 75,76 and 78
Howard Plunkett, Lt. Col. USAF (Ret)for information on the F105D aircraft.
Last but not least, the Mearns & Maxwell families for taking the time to share memories, pictures and articles of Art with me.
Last updated on: 21-NOVEMBER-2000
Copyright � 1998, 1999, 2000
