When American prisoners of war began returning home from Vietnam in 1973 during Operation Homecoming, families across the nation celebrated the return of nearly 600 Americans who had endured years of captivity. Yet for thousands of others, the waiting continued as 2646 loved ones remained listed as missing in action.
More than 50 years later, one Lockport woman still carries a powerful reminder of that era.
As a teenager during the Vietnam War, Mary Brennan Taylor purchased a POW bracelet bearing the name of Navy Captain James Mulligan, who had been shot down over North Vietnam in March,1966 during his 80th mission. Mulligan spent nearly seven years as a prisoner in the notorious prisons, dubbed the Hanoi Hilton and Alcatraz by the POWs. Mulligan began his career as a Navy officer in 1944 during WWII and was one of the oldest of the POWs being held in barbaric conditions. Along with 10 other men, Captain Mulligan and his fellow POWS were considered the most defiant of the prisoners by their captors and were subjected to nearly 4 years of solitary confinement, starvation and torture to try to break their spirit, but they remained unbroken until liberation. Alvin Townley told the story of Captain Mulligan and the 10 other resilient men in his bestselling book, “Defiant.” Like millions of Americans, Mary wore the bracelet bearing Mulligan’s name and date of capture as a promise that the men who were missing or imprisoned would not be forgotten.
What she never imagined was that the bracelet would eventually lead to a friendship with the man whose name she carried on her wrist.
Following her purchase of the bracelet, Mary wrote to Captain Mulligan’s wife, Louise, using a PO Box address provided by the California-based bracelet organizers, VIVA. Mrs. Mulligan followed up Mary’s correspondence with a personal letter to Mary providing information about her husband and their 6 young sons. Upon his liberation from North Vietnam’s POW camp during Operation Homecoming, Captain Mulligan wrote to Mary and enclosed a photo of himself reunited with his family after 2522 days apart. What began as a single letter grew into a friendship that would span more than five decades. Through visits, correspondence, and shared memories, the Mulligans became an important part of her life and gave her a personal window into one of the most remarkable stories of endurance from the Vietnam War.
Captain Mulligan’s experience was shared by hundreds of American prisoners who endured years of isolation, torture, and uncertainty while held in North Vietnamese prison camps. Many survived through an extraordinary network of secret communication, tapping messages through prison walls and relying on one another for strength and hope.
The story of the Mulligans also highlights another often-overlooked chapter of the war: the families who waited at home. While prisoners endured captivity, wives, parents, and children lived with years of uncertainty. Louise Mulligan became a founding member of the National League of Families, an organization that fought to keep the plight of American POWs and MIAs in the public eye and pressed government leaders for information about those still missing.
Visitors to I Was There: Unknown Stories of Vietnam will have an opportunity to see artifacts and photographs connected to Captain Mulligan, Operation Homecoming, and the POW/MIA story, including the poignant “Missing Man Table”, provided by Vietnam Veterans Chapter 268. At the center of the display is Mary’s original POW bracelet — a small piece of metal that became the beginning of an extraordinary friendship and a lasting reminder of a promise made by a generation of Americans.
“For many people, a POW bracelet was a symbol,” said co-curator Mary Brennan Taylor. “For me, it became a lifelong connection to a family whose courage and resilience I will never forget.”
The exhibit’s POW/MIA room explores not only the experiences of the prisoners who came home, but also the stories of those who waited for them and the families whose waiting never ended.