WASHINGTON (KSEE/KGPE) - During the Vietnam War, thousands of people purchased bracelets with the names of soldiers who were missing in action during the war etched onto them. The hope was one day those soldiers would be brought home.  As the decades passed, many families still waited for answers they may never get. It's hard to imagine everyone who bought a bracelet still knows where it is.  But Debbie Shea held onto hers.  "I think I acquired it about 1971. I was about 16. I was in high school, it was just my way of supporting the Vietnam vets and being 16. There wasn't a lot you could do," Shea said. She took it from her hometown in Arkansas, to college, and to where she lives now in Richmond, Virginia.  Even as the decades passed by, she always knew the man's name etched into the metal. Her bracelet said Ralph Balcom.  For some reason, during a moment of boredom during the pandemic in 2020, Debbie thought about the man's name engraved on her bracelet and decided to do some research.  "I just thought, 'Is he still missing?' You know, 'What happened?' I needed to know the end of the story," she said.  Unfortunately, Shea learned his body was never found, and he was never able to be brought home to his family.  "So I googled a little bit more and found a site where you could go to the bracelet area and kind of leave a note on the bulletin board. So I just said 'I acquired this bracelet in 1971 and I would love to return it to the family if possible,'" she said.  And it was possible. The right person saw her note four years later.  It turns out, Ralph Balcom's son, Chris, volunteers with the Central Valley Honor Flight. The group works to get central California veterans to Washington, D.C., so they can see memorials and monuments made in their honor. An organizer with the group happened across her post online and soon realized their volunteer was the son of the man named on Shea's bracelet.  Organizers decided then Chris Balcom had to be on the next flight they took to D.C, and Shea had to be there.  "She has been wearing your dad's POW-MIA bracelet for 55 years," organizer Joe Fry said between tears.  "What are the chances, Chris?" Shea said, before embracing for a hug. The chances were slim. These two perfect strangers from opposite sides of the country were unknowingly connected for decades, even as they lived thousands of miles away.  "He left the day after my third birthday, so I don't have any memories of him," Balcom said. But on top of the stories he's heard about his dad, what he does have now is his dad's bracelet and a tattoo that perfectly matches it.  "I had it tattooed on there, and I put his purple heart on there as well," he said. Once they exchanged the bracelet, the pair walked down to the Vietnam War Memorial and took pictures where his dad's name was carved into the wall.  "It's pieces like little pieces of him and his memory," he said. Pieces, patching together his dad's story. Helping him bring pieces of him back home.