Marilyn married Vietnam Air Force veteran, Clarence Bennett, about 2 years after he returned from Vietnam –  both are from West Virginia, but now live in Tennessee.

To say they were surprised when we reached out to them to let them know we had Clarence’s dog tag is an understatement.

Bennett’s dog tag began it’s journey home after British Army/Navy veteran, Aaron Bougourd, received it from the family of Major Thien in 2006. Bougourd had been volunteering for the Father Ray Foundation Orphanage in Thialand when he met Major Thien, and helped him find his lost family in Vietnam. Thien, a South Vietnamese officer living as a refugee. Major Ly Kim Thien was commissioned as an officer of the Republic of Vietnam Air Force in 1964 and served in several capacities throughout Vietnam up until the fall of Saigon in 1975. It was after this that he was sent to a communist reeducation camp, where he was tortured and forced to denounce his anti-communist beliefs. In 1994 he escaped Vietnam on foot through Cambodia and on to Thailand, which is where Aaron Bougourd met him. Thien’s family, as a token of appreciation, gave Bougourd some dog tags they had found at Ben Hoa Air Base.

Aaron, now a resident of the UK,  reached out and sent some of the dog tags to Patriot Connections Dog Tag Project to help return them.

We are happy to report that we were able to reunite Clarence Bennett with his dog tag over the holidays !