After decades as a leading advocate for missing servicemembers and their families, Carole Hickerson planned to slow down from the veteran-support work that has defined her adult life.
 
But the American Legion Auxiliary came calling — and soon, Hickerson added ALA membership to her long list of activities in support of veterans and their communities.
 

“It’s kind of hard for Carole Hanson Hickerson to stay out of things,” she said. She recently became a member of Hawaii ALA Unit 56 in Honolulu. 
 
Indeed, the ability to “stay out of things” has not been Hickerson’s strong suit since 1967. That was the year she learned that her husband at the time — Steve Hanson, a Marine aviator serving in the Vietnam War — was missing in action. The news sparked a yearslong effort by Hickerson to learn what had happened to Hanson, whom she would later learn had been killed in action.
 
Through her work to get answers about Hanson, she became a leader in the fight for information about all servicemembers missing in Southeast Asia. Her work spanned more than 50 years and spearheaded a national movement. 
 
The roots of Hickerson’s advocacy are in a letter to the editor, which she wrote and sent to 300 newspapers across the nation to express frustration at her inability to get answers about Hanson.
 
“I started getting all these letters from other POW/MIA families,” she said, “and it grew and grew.”
 
The resulting movement included a campaign that today Hickerson considers her proudest moment in support of those in the military who are missing: She helped lead the charge to sell bracelets that each had the name, rank, and date of loss of someone missing in Vietnam. Sales helped fund efforts to raise awareness of POW/MIA servicemembers.
 
“The POW bracelet was the thing that really involved so many people,” Hickerson said, “because each had one particular POW or MIA to pray for and think about, and they wore it all the time.”
 
Another symbol of Hickerson’s efforts to draw attention to POW/MIAs continues to adorn flagpoles to this day. The design on the POW/MIA flag is the same one Hickerson drew for letterhead and business cards for the national nonprofit she and other wives of missing servicemembers established in 1970. The silhouette in the design is that of Steve Hanson.
 
The nonprofit organization would become the National League of POW/MIA Families. 
 
In 1973, she married Jim Hickerson, who served in the Navy for 30 years and is a former Vietnam POW. The couple later moved from California to Hawaii, where, several years ago, Carole Hickerson spoke at an ALA Girls State function. Afterward, she remained in contact with Hawaii’s ALA Girls State director, Brister Thomas — who asked Hickerson to join the ALA.
 
Despite her interest in slowing down from advocacy work, Hickerson agreed to become a member. Now, she looks forward to lending any insight she can to an organization that, like Hickerson, has a long history of supporting veterans.
 
“It’s certainly organizations like this one that kept us going and were the first to start publicizing the issue of POWs and MIAs,” she said. “They’re just good Americans, and I’m appreciative and just thankful.”