Bracelets

ENLARGE PHOTO+

John McCain, left, wears a bracelet for Corporal Matthew Stanley, who was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb in 2006 at age 22. Barack Obama, right, wears one for Sergeant Ryan David Jopek, who was killed in 2006 at age 20, also by an Iraqi roadside bomb.

McCain: Ron Edmonds / AP; Obama: Charles Dharapak / AP

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During the Sept. 26 Presidential Debate, Senator John McCain vowed to continue fighting in Iraq, noting that he wore a bracelet given to him by the mother of a slain soldier--a woman who'd made him promise, he said, to "make sure [her] son's death was not in vain." Senator Barack Obama immediately responded that he had a bracelet too--given to him by a woman who begged him to "make sure another mother is not going through what I'm going through."

Memorial bracelets have been around since the Vietnam War, when a student group, Voices in Vital America (VIVA), began a campaign on behalf of missing American soldiers and prisoners of war, using silver bands modeled after that of TV host (and future Congressman) Robert Dornan. The bracelets took off--Bob Dole, Ronald Reagan and Sonny and Cher all donned POW/MIA bands at one time or another--and VIVA sold more than 5 million before disbanding in 1976. (They are still available through the National League of Families.)

Lance Armstrong reignited the accessories-with-a-message trend in 2004 with the $1 yellow LiveStrong bracelet. The rubbery adornment has become this decade's AIDS ribbon and can indicate support for causes from bipolar disorder to Darfur. At HeroBracelets.org started in 2004--friends and family can honor servicemen from World War II to Iraq with personalized metallic bracelets. President Bush has received two from military moms. McCain got his at a New Hampshire campaign stop; Obama's came from Wisconsin. More than 50,000 bracelets have been sold so far, and since the debate, HeroBracelets founder Chris Greta says he has received numerous requests for copies of Obama's bracelet--including an order from the relatives of the fallen soldier.