FREEDOM NOW VIETNAM POW/MIA BRACELET...SSGT. JAMES MICHAEL RAY ARMY...RARE!

Description

WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS AN EXTREMELY RARE FREEDOM NOW BRACELET...EVEN MORE RARE WERE THE "PICTURE" TYPE FREEDOM NOW BRACELETS.  THE FREEDOM NOW BRACELETS CEASED OPERATION ALMOST A COUPLE OF DECADES AGO.  I'VE SOLD OTHERS THROUGH THE YEARS AND THIS IS MY LAST ONE.  THIS PARTICULAR BRACELET IS THAT OF SSGT. JAMES MICHAEL RAY, UNITED STATES ARMY WHO WAS A POW OF THE VC IN CAMBODIA...AWARDED THE SILVER STAR FOR HIS MANY ATTEMPTS FROM CAPTIVITY.  THIS BRACELET HAS NEVER BEEN WORN.
Please read...
On March 18, 1968, PFC James M. Ray and 1Lt. John G. Dunn were part of
a unit on a road clearing mission with Montagnard soldiers on Highway 20 in Lam
Dong Province, South Vietnam.
During the mission, both Ray and Dunn were captured by the Viet Cong and taken
to Cambodia for detention. Dunn was released in the general prisoner release
nearing the end of American involvement in Vietnam in 1973. Jimmy Ray did not
come home.
Ray, who had been wounded during his capture, was rotated within the "system" of
those POWs held in South Vietnam. He made escape attempts which infuriated his
captors and they beat him severely and confined him with chains. He was awarded
the Silver Star for gallantry for these escape attempts and resulting torture.
In April 1969, an American POW who escaped from the camp where Ray was being
held with other POWs reported that Jimmy was alive and one of the healthiest of
the POWs both mentally and physically. Jimmy was held apart from the other POWs,
because of his attempts to escape.
In the summer of 1969, Jimmy became ill with malaria and reportedly died in
November 1969 at a detention camp in the northern Tay Ninh Province/Cambodia
area. Although there are "statements" attesting to Jimmy Ray's death, many years
would pass before Jimmy's father would be able to trace and personally talk to
POWs held with Jimmy. NOT ONE saw him dead - even those whose "statements" were
in Jimmy's files!
PFC Ray's records are a tangle of inconsistencies. His death was "reported" when
there was no witness, and this report was later retracted. A medal was awarded
for gallantry in an escape occurring AFTER Jimmy was supposed to have died.
However, no verified proof of his death was ever received.
Jimmy's family feels there is a strong chance that he is alive today, but if he
is not, they know that the communist government of Vietnam certainly knows the
fate of PFC Jimmy Ray, who, in the words of one POW, "wanted more than anything
else to be free."
The Vietnamese state that Jimmy died on November 6, 1969, but have not produced
proof of his death or returned a body.
James M. Ray was promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant during the period he was
a prisoner of war.
FOR THE COLLECTOR, THIS IS A MUST HAVE...I'M STARTING THE BIDDING AT 0.00 WITH NO RESERVE!