Timothy Samuel Owen

Staff Sergeant
D CO, 1ST BN, 503RD INFANTRY, 173 ABN BDE
Army of the United States
25 November 1946 - 04 June 1974
Rochester, New York
Panel 54W Line 018

173 ABN BDE

503RD INF RGT
Combat Infantry

National Defense, Vietnam Service, Vietnam Campaign

Airborne!

The database page for Timothy Samuel Owen

07 Dec 2003

I have worn the MIA Bracelet for Timothy S. Owen since they first came out in the 70's. Throughout the years I have had to replace it several times as it has become worn out. I still periodically check to see if his remains have been found and returned to his family. It is my hope that one day they will be found and returned.

I never knew PFC Owen but I honor his memory by wearing an MIA bracelet with his name. His memory lives on, outside of his friends and family, in the form of a piece of metal I proudly wear every day.

Frederick K. Slavin
airmike@alltel.net

4 May 2004

I also wore Timothy Owen's bracelet every day from the time I received it in the mail in 1971, through high school graduation, and into college. It became a somber token of remembrance for a young man I never had the opportunity to meet, yet felt so much gratitude for his courageous service to our country. I remember often pondering what was going on in my own safe surroundings at the time of his disappearance, and how so many lives must have been changed in those moments.

He and his family have remained in my thoughts and prayers all these years, and I continue to pray for further closure as others are being found and returned for a proper burial.

Never forgotten

Never.

Wendy Christopherson
wchris3059@sbcglobal.net

13 Oct 2004

In January of 1997, I was a young soldier (US Army) serving on a humanitarian mission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. While there, I learned that someone at the PX had located a bunch of MIA/POW bracelets that were never given to anyone from a long time ago. There was a box of approximately 50 bracelets. I just randomly grabbed one which turned out to be SSG Timothy Owen. To this day I contine to wear it off and on as a reminder of the sacrifices men made before I was even born.

Thank you,
Staff Sergeant Owen

Joey Hawkins
306 Windridge Dr, West Monroe, La, 71291
jhawkins7@jam.rr.com

17 Dec 2004

In 1971, while living and working in Erie, Pennsylvania, I volunteered to run the POW-MIA Bracelet Program for the city.

Like the others, I never knew PFC Owen, but felt a bond because I had enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1953, served on Active Duty through 1960, and was then serving in the Ready Reserve, which I did until 1983.

At the time, I felt it was important to spread the word to the public about the plight of our military men to help get attention to this cause.

I think of PFC Owen often and the sacrifices that he and all the other servicemen made for our country. I pray for his eventual return to his country and his family.

Robert P. Capria
20 Bradley Avenue, Branford, Ct 06405
bobcapria@hotmail.com

20 Oct 2005

I first got PFC Timothy Owen's bracelet in 1971 or 1972 while stationed in Fort Bragg, NC. I was lucky, I never left Fort Bragg. All of my fellow dental assistants and our medical assistant friends assigned to various post clinics or Womack Army Hospital wore bracelets of enlisted soldiers who were listed as MIA. For a long time I checked to see if Timothy had ever been found or returned, to no avail.

Years passed and his bracelet found its way into my keepsake drawer.

But today, at work, I saw one of the division heads with a yellow plastic bracelet and asked him if he knew where this current wearing of a bracelet began. He said no, and I told him about my bracelet of PFC Owen. He was only 6 years old at the time of the Viet Nam war, yet the knowledge I shared with him brought a new poignancy to the bracelet that he now wears.

And I could see in his eyes that he deeply understood how I could remember after almost 40 years a PFC who didn't make it back to his barracks that night and the parents who are waiting for their son to come home.

(PFC) Peter Meltzer
Boca Raton, Florida
petermeltzer@bellsouth.net

15 Mar 2007

My name is Leonard Owen, older brother of SSG Timothy S. Owen. Thank each and every one of you who have worn Tim's bracelet for so many years. Tim's remains were never located and he was declared deceased in 1974. Tim was a great guy, a super woodsman and hunter. He worked as a technical draftsman for Teledyne Brown Engineering, Huntsville, Alabama and Xerox in Rochester, New York before joining the Army. He was proud of his country and proud to serve it. He was greatly loved and is sorely missed to this day. Thank you for caring.

From his brother,
Leonard W. Owen
lenowen29@gulftel.com

13 Apr 2007

After 39 years, the love and the pain,
all the emotions of loss and gain
are as fresh and poignant today as then.
Remembering my hero, my brother, my friend.
With love, Alice

From his sister,
G. Alice Owen
lady.conure@yahoo.com

A Note from The Virtual Wall

On 29 June 1968 then-PFC Timothy S. Owen was a member of a night ambush team about 25 miles east-southeast of Pleiku in Binh Dinh Province, South Vietnam. At about midnight PFC Owen became separated from his teammates. Although search efforts were begun within minutes and continued for four days, utilizing tracker dogs and handlers and helicopters, no trace of PFC Owen was found.

He was classed as Missing in Action and maintained in that status until 04 June 1974, when the Secretary of the Army approved a Presumptive Finding of Death. His remains have not been repatriated.





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With all respect
Jim Schueckler, former CW2, US Army
Ken Davis, Commander, United States Navy (Ret)
Memorial first published on 7 Dec 2003
Last updated 08/10/2009