my random name

In 1973, I got this POW bracelet. When you sent in your $2.50 for one, you got a random name, unless you made a special request. You were supposed to wear it always, in hope. I wore mine for as long as you can expect a teenage girl to wear one — two, maybe three, years. In preparing for this post, I have read stories about people who have worn theirs for 30-40 years. I didn’t, but I have never forgotten S/SGT. CHARLES KING 12-25-68. Back in the early 1970s, I had no idea who “my” POW was, or what he did, or where he was lost.

Today, I do know. He was lost in Laos on Christmas Day in 1968. He was declared a prisoner of war in 1973. And in 1978, Charles King was declared killed in action. Years later, he was posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross Award.

This is the text of Charles D. King’s Air Force Cross Award:

“The Air Force Cross is presented to Charles Douglas King, Airman First Class, U.S. Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an opposing armed force as a Pararescueman in Southeast Asia on 25 December 1968. On that date, Airman King was aboard a helicopter engaged in the recovery of a downed United States Air Force pilot from an extremely hostile area. With complete disregard for his own safety, Airman King voluntarily descended on a rescue hoist more than one hundred feet to the ground to aid the injured pilot. Once on the ground, he carried the rescue device to the pilot, freed him from the parachute, secured him to the rescue device and then used the cable hoist to drag the pilot to a point near the hovering helicopter. Suddenly, enemy soldiers closed in and directed automatic weapons fire at Airman King, the injured pilot, and the helicopter. Though wounded, Airman King, in an extraordinary display of courage and valor, placed his comrades’ lives above his own by refusing to continue their exposure to the murderous enemy fire. Without taking time to secure himself to the hoist cable, he radioed that he was hit and for the helicopter to pull away. Airman King made this selfless decision with the full realization that once the helicopter departed, he would be alone, wounded, and surrounded by armed, hostile forces. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of the enemy, Airman King reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.”