HAMPTON -- Linda Bump's held on to her POW/MIA Vietnam War bracelet these 40 years and held onto hope that one day, the man on the bracelet would be found.
Air Force Sgt. Melvin Rash was a 1966 York High School graduate. He crashed in 1968 along the Vietnam/Laos border.
"Over the years, I wondered who is this person, who is this person that I care about so much? Is his mom and dad still here? Does he have brothers and sisters? Especially at Christmas."
Then answers came on December 6 when she discovered his obituary online. Rash would be buried at Arlington National Cemetery the next day, December 7.
"There was no question that I would be there," she stated.
Bump says she was very nervous about meeting Rash's sister and brother.
"A calm came over me and I walked up to his sister and introduced myself and barely got the words out and showed her my bracelet and she hugged me and thanked me for coming. And it was I hate to say it it was a wonderful day," Bump recalled.
She says her biggest fear was that Rash's remains would be found that he would come home to no one.
He's at rest at home now and will always be in her heart.
Tim Smith with the Yorktown War Monument says Sgt. Rash is now Chief Master Sergeant Rash and his name is on the monument.
