THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 25, 1995 TAG: 9508250648
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DEROCHI, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
A week ago, when Jill Dove Brcic watched the remains of her father laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, she thought she'd found the closure she needed.
The ceremony, with the bugler and the flag draped over a casket, was supposed to shut the final chapter of her father's life and honor his death more than 18 years ago in Vietnam.
Or so Brcic thought as she stood with her mother and brother on the grassy field.
But on Thursday, when Brcic returned home from work to find a box on her front doorstep, she learned the wound hadn't healed.
Inside the box was a letter and a silver bracelet. The sides of the bracelet were well worn and the shine had long since dimmed, but the words were clear:
Capt. Jack P. Dove Sr. - 7/12/67.
The letter was from a Norfolk woman, who explained she had worn the bracelet for seven years in honor of Brcic's father, an Air Force pilot who was declared missing in action when his plane was shot down over North Vietnam.
The bracelet was among many issued over the years to people who wanted to make sure that prisoners of war and those missing in action were not forgotten. She had used it in her work as a school librarian, telling hundreds of school children the meaning of MIA, and of Vietnam. Though Dove was later declared killed in action, she'd worn the bracelet as a reminder that his remains had not been returned.
She took it off the day she read a newspaper story of the Aug. 16 burial in Arlington.
``Your father has been thought of hundreds of times,'' wrote the woman. ``I thought you should have his bracelet now that he's come home.'' by CNB