Barb Newell, front, and veteran Bob Ecklund, help judge the essays entered into the Veterans Day essay contest. Newell, who is active with the All Veterans Tribute committee, wore a prisoner-of-war bracelet in the 1970s. She recently found the man whose name was on her bracelet and invited him to Emporia for the veterans tribute week.
A long-awaited meeting between a former prisoner of war in North Vietnam and a local woman who wore his POW bracelet has been deferred for health reasons.
Emporian Barb Newell was eager to meet Glendon Perkins, who was taken prisoner in 1965 during the Vietnam War.
Newell’s connection to Perkins came through a long-ago bracelet campaign to honor and remember the U.S. military’s prisoners of war and those who were missing in action. Each bracelet held the name of a POW or MIA, the rank, and the date that person was captured or became missing.
“In 1972, when I was 13, it was a big deal to wear a POW bracelet,” Newell said. “Some people still wear theirs to this day.”
She recently located Perkins and invited him to speak during the All Veterans Tribute Week activities here. Perkins accepted and was planning a patriotic speech for his portion of the event. But a sudden health problem caused doctors to tell Perkins that he should not travel until his health improves.
The name of her unknown prisoner meant little to Newell until she read an Associated Press article published December 1972 in the Wichita Eagle-Beacon.
The article included the name of an Orlando, Fla., Air Force officer, Glendon Perkins, who was about to be released after being held as a prisoner of war since 1965. A follow-up AP article in The Beacon on February 1973 told of his arrival at home. Those articles attached a living personality to the name Newell carried on her wrist.
Newell said the articles described Perkins’ family and how Perkins had found that much had changed during his absence.
“The submissive wife he left behind challenges his most fundamental beliefs,” Newell read from the article entitled “Changed Wife, Strange Wife.”
His wife, Kay, and he had married at the ages of 16 and 19, respectively.
“Some women are their father’s daughters. It was so in the beginning of our marriage,” the article quoted Perkins. Kay had been a traditional wife for that time period, one who stayed at home with the family and looked to her husband to lead.
During his absence, Kay took over family responsibilities for herself and their four children, cut her long hair, went back to school and dropped four dress sizes, Newell recounted from the news article. Kay became a working mother and head of the household because her husband was a POW. Normally a reserved woman, Kay joined a POW wives’ group and began giving speeches in an effort to gain the release of the prisoners held in Southeast Asia. On his return, Perkins adapted to the changes within himself and his family and continued with his career.
Newell packed up the bracelet carrying Perkins’ name and returned it to him as a memento; she received a form letter in return. The publicity given to Perkins’ release, as well as the number of bracelets that carried his name, had triggered an onslaught of letters, flowers and telegrams to him and his family. He simply did not have time to respond personally to each contact, and Newell understood.
Still, she knew much more about him than she had when she bought the bracelet.
In the letter, Perkins expressed his gratitude for being home at last.
“My six and a half years in a North Vietnamese prison seemed at the time never ending, but now it is rapidly diminishing into the past,” he wrote. “Never again will I take the freedoms of my country and love of my family for granted.”
He said that returning to his family “has been more wonderful than I can possibly express to you in words. When I left, the children were all in grade school. I returned to find three quite grown young men and a lovely young lady. I’m extremely proud of how my wife raised the family and worked for our return.”
Perkins wrote about his reunion with Kay on Valentine’s Day 1973 and his plans to continue in the Air Force and to attend college at Florida Technological University at Orlando, where the family lived.
Newell filed the letter away and did not attempt to make contact again until she was asked to help with the All Veterans Tribute committee at the Emporia Chamber of Commerce. She managed to locate Perkins and wrote to invite him to come to Emporia to speak.
“In the letter, I indicated I would find a way to fund their trip,” she said. She sent a packet of information about the event, the memorial park and other veterans’ activities unique to the founding city of Veterans Day.
In less than a week Newell received a response that touched her heart.
“Wow, after 33 years, you still remember us,” Perkins said in his response. “... We are indeed honored.”
He wrote that he and his wife had rearranged a few appointments and cleared the calendar so they could come to Emporia. And, Perkins added personal information about his and his family’s life during the years since the form letter.
Perkins had been a captain when he was shot down. He told Newell that he was promoted to major while in captivity, and later was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He was assigned to Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota before he retired in 1979.
“While there, I learned to fly as a civilian pilot and taught flying for 11 years after retirement,” he wrote.
“...We were quite impressed by all the literature you sent us. I am not really active in veterans’ groups here. After being gone for seven years while my children were growing up, I decided to put my family first, and we have monthly gatherings for birthday parties and holidays. I spend much of my time canoeing and camping and gardening, so not much left for other things.”
Perkins and his wife, Kay, have “11 grandchildren, plus some others thrown in. I promised myself that I would enjoy our grandchildren after missing the chance to see ours grow up. It has been a blessed experience.”
Perkins wrote that the Air Force had sent him to college for three years after his return from North Vietnam.
“... and my oldest son and I graduated together in 1976,” he wrote.
Perkins’ upbeat tone changed in an e-mail to Newell in mid-October, when a sudden health problem arose.
“I am so sorry,” Perkins wrote. “We aging guys do not expect these things and are caught by surprise. ...We were really looking forward to meeting you and being a part of your Veterans Days Observance. I even had a good speech written. ...
“Again, we regret this more than we can say. ... We hope this does not leave you in a pinch.”
Perkins could not regret the change in plans more than Barb Newell does.
“I was so sad and disappointed when I heard ... they would not be able to travel to Emporia for our Veterans Tribute celebration,” Newell said last month. “I told Glendon that I had cried twice when reading e-mails from him — once, last April, when he told me they could come to Kansas in November, and then last week when he told me that they couldn’t.”
Newell hopes that the couple will be able to come to Emporia later or that she can travel to Florida to see them.
“I would like that a lot because it would mean so much to me to actually meet the man whose POW bracelet I wore 33 years ago,” Newell said.
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