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Contact: McCall Avery (202) 225-4201

McKinney resident to return P.O.W. bracelet back to Sam Johnson


Washington, Oct 4 - On Thursday, October 5, 2006 at 2:30pm, McKinney-resident Paula Chambers will return a Prisoner of War (P.O.W.) bracelet engraved with Sam Johnson’s name and shoot-down date to Congressman Johnson (3rd Dist.-Texas) in Richardson.

Chambers has never met Congressman Johnson, but she attended school with his children in Plano while he was in captivity.  Members of the media are invited to attend a photo opportunity at the top of the meeting.

Chambers graduated from Plano High School in 1972 and bought the bracelet around that time.  Paula’s mother, Doris Alexander, worked for James P. Melton, the brother of Shirley Johnson, the wife of then-P.O.W. Johnson.  Shirley Johnson helped create the National League of Families that started the P.O.W. bracelet campaign as a way to draw international attention to the cruel treatment of the Prisoners of War in Vietnam.  

People wore the bracelets bearing the name of a P.O.W. as a reminder to pray for the person in captivity, even if the person did not know the serviceman personally.   Many proudly wore these bracelets, and some still do, as a symbol of hope that the P.O.W.s and Missing In Action (M.I.A.s) would return to their families alive.   

Shot down on April 16, 1966, Johnson spent nearly seven years as a Prisoner of War in Vietnam, more than half of that time in solitary confinement.   This January, accompanied by his wife, Sam Johnson returned to the Hanoi Hilton for the first time since his release in February 1973.

After Johnson’s 1973 homecoming, thousands of bracelets were returned to him in person or in the mail.  However, 33 years later, the traditional return of the P.O.W. bracelet has become much more infrequent.  Over the last several years, Johnson estimates that he has accepted one every other year or two.

Recently Chambers came across the P.O.W. bracelet in her jewelry box and contacted the Congressman to return it to him.  Engraved in the bracelet reads: “Lt. Col. Samuel Johnson    4-16-66.”   

WHEN           Thursday, October 5, 2006 at 2:30pm
WHO             McKinney-resident Paula Chambers
                       Congressman Sam Johnson – Former P.O.W. in Vietnam
                       Shirley Melton Johnson – Founder of National League of Families
WHAT         P.O.W. bracelet presentation to Johnson photo-opportunity
WHERE        The office of Congressman Sam Johnson
                       2929 North Central Expressway, Ste 240 in Richardson
                       Phone: (972) 470-0892

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