POW/MIA bracelet found in parking lot

Longtime Carson City resident Frank Page was walking his dog near Carson High School when he spotted a shining piece of metal.

Page said he found the POW/MIA bracelet on Aug. 27 in the school parking lot just opposite the walk-in entrance to the football field.

"It was just laying down on one of the parking spots opposite where you go into the football field," he said. "It should be very important to someone."

The bracelets are purchased with the name of a missing or captured American service member. A portion of the purchase price goes to help fund MIA/POW charities.

The aluminum bracelet carries the name of Capt. Larry Fletcher Potts, who was shot down and captured in a rescue mission made famous in the movie "Bat 21."

Potts was an artillery spotter in an OV-10A Bronco, a propellor-driven spotter aircraft.

He was shot down over South Vietnam during the effort to rescue Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton, played by Gene Hackman in the 1988 movie.

Potts and pilot Bruce Charles Walker were shot down on Potts' 25th birthday April 7, 1972.

According to a summary of the incident reported on www.taskforceomega.com, Potts and Walker parachuted after their plane was hit by a surface to air missile while directing a Navy artillery barrage.

Potts was captured by North Vietnamese Army forces and reportedly died in a Prisoner of War camp in Quang Binh prison.

The bracelet is silver with the inscription "Capt Larry F. Potts" and the second line says "USMC 7 APR 72 SVN."

Anyone with information about the bracelet may contact the Nevada Appeal at 775-881-1215.

If you have any information about the bracelet, call 881-1215.