Gone but never forgotten

Gone but never forgotten

To show support for our troops during the Vietnam War, we wore a bracelet bearing the name of a POW or MIA soldier. The bracelet allowed us to show our support for the troops. Even if we didn't know the person whose name appeared on the bracelet, it was a way for us to keep alive the memory.
My wife, who was an elementary school teacher, sent for a bracelet. She received one with the name Lt. John Ryder, MIA, 6/9/70. She knew little about John Ryder until one day in 1990, when she went to a traveling display of the Vietnam Memorial. She found his name on the Wall, did a rubbing of it, and learned that he was from Chisholm, Minn.
To let the people of Chisholm know he was being remembered, she wrote a letter to the Chisholm Free Press. In the letter she mentioned that she had the bracelet of Lt. John Ryder, that she was a fifth grade teacher, and that each year around Memorial Day she told her students what she had learned about Ryder as they discussed the Vietnam War.
She told the paper she was writing the letter hoping that a family member, relative or friend would be comforted knowing that John Ryder had been remembered for the past 20 years by the students of a small community near Philadelphia. Her letter appeared in the Chisholm newspaper with the headline "Captain John Ryder Remembered These Past Twenty Years By Children in School Near Philadelphia."
One night last January, my wife received a phone call from Minnesota. Knowing no one in Minnesota, she was reluctant to answer. When she picked up the phone, the man on the other end asked if she was the Patricia Acciavatti who had lived in and taught school in a suburb of Philadelphia. Fearing it might be a scam, she was reluctant to reply until she was told, "Please don't hang up. We have a mutual friend. She learned that the man on the other end was David "Dewy" Johnson, who had grown up with John Ryder; that they had been friends, socialized, played sports together through grade school and high school. Preparing to move to a new home, David came across a clipping of the letter my wife had written 20 years ago. He was determined to track her down. After an extensive search, he learned that my wife had remarried after the death of her husband and that she had moved with her present husband from Pennsylvania to Lake Placid, Fla.
As he recalled Ryder, David became very emotional and had to put his wife on the phone. The two women talked for almost an hour. In the course of the conversation, Sherry Johnson invited us to visit Minnesota and we invited them to visit us and stay with us in Florida. Thinking only that these were the usual courtesies exchanged by new acquaintances, we did not expect to ever meet them.
On Sunday, March 8, 2015, we received a phone call. It was Sherry Johnson. She and David were on their way to Fort Myers, Fla., to spend time with David's brother who owned a condominium there. Would it be okay if they stopped by on their way to Fort Myers? Needless to say, we were surprised to hear from them. They would be in Lake Placid sometime in the afternoon.
At about 2 p.m. on Monday, March 9, a car drove up to our house. We met them in the driveway and David immediately hugged my wife and tearfully told her how happy he was to have finally met her. He thanked her for remembering Ryder all these years.
We invited David and Sherry in and offered them a drink. The conversation soon turned to Ryder. We learned that he was born and raised in Chisholm, that he had gone to the U.S. Air Force Academy and had graduated in 1968. Shortly after he graduated, he married and shipped out to South Vietnam. In Vietnam he was a pilot on an O1F spotter aircraft and had been shot down on a reconnaissance mission after leaving Pleiku Air Base. Their aircraft was located just north of Pleiku. Ryder was reported MIA. It was later determined that he had been killed in action. He was promoted to captain after his death.
We spent the better part of the afternoon talking with the Johnsons. When they left, we vowed to keep our friendship going and even talked about taking a European river cruise together. A bracelet from 1970 and a letter written in 1990 brought together two families from thousands of miles away 45 years later. Capt. John Ryder is still being remembered.