Posted at 08:47 on Tuesday 15 September 2009 by POW/MIA Chairman
On National POW/MIA Recognition Day, we recognize and honor a small, but very special group of Americans: our former prisoners of war and those who are still missing in action.
Each year, the third Friday in September is set aside to honor the commitment and the sacrifices made by this nation’s Prisoners of War and those who are still Missing in Action, as well as their families. America’s POW/MIAs should be honored and recognized rather than memorialized, with the focus on the need to account as fully as possible for those still missing, alive or dead.
Since the Revolutionary War, America’s men and women have made unselfish sacrifices to defend freedom. In each of America’s wars, America’s prisoners of war have faced extraordinary hardships and overcome them through extraordinary sacrifices.
To observe this important day, the National League of Families POW/MIA flag is flown over the Capitol, the White House, the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, and other locations across our country. It is also the only flag on permanent display in the rotunda of our nation’s Capitol.
The flag, nationally known as POW/MIA, features a white disk bearing in black silhouette a man’s bust, a watch tower with a guard on patrol, and a strand of barbed wire. White letters “POW” and “MIA”, with a white five-pointed star in between, are typed above the disk. Below the disk is a black and white wreath above the motto “You Are Not Forgotten” written in white, capital letters. Hewt Heisley, a World War II pilot, designed this flag.
The importance of the POW/MIA flag is a solemn reminder of our Nation’s enduring obligation and promise to our courageous service members who remain missing and a tribute to those who have been imprisoned while serving their country in conflicts around the world. The flag symbolizes the United States’ resolve to never forget POWs or those who served their country in conflicts and are still missing.
More than 78,000 Americans are unaccounted for from World War II, more than 8,100 American servicemen from the Korean War, and at the end of the Vietnam War, there reportedly were 2,583 unaccounted for American prisoners, missing or killed on action/body not recovered.
In June 1985, President Ronald Reagan said, “This country deeply appreciates the pain and suffering endured by families whose fathers, sons, husbands, or brothers are today still missing or unaccounted for. These families are an example of strength and patriotism of all Americans. We as a people are untied in supporting efforts to return the captive, recover the missing, resolve the accounting, and relieve the suffering of the families who wait.”
In August 2009, Navy officials announced that the remains of the first American lost in the 1991 Persian Gulf War was found in the Anbar province of Iraq after a nearly 20-year search. The Navy pilot, Captain Michael Scott Speicher, was shot down flying a combat mission in an F/A-18 Hornet on Jan. 17, 1991, whose fate had been listed with uncertainly and the only American missing in action from that war.
“Our Navy will never give up looking for a shipmate, regardless of how long or how difficult that search may be,” said Admiral Gary Roughhead, chief of naval operations, in a statement. “We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Captain Speicher and his family for the sacrifice they have made for our nation and the example of strength they have set for all of us.”
Over the years, we hear the stories of the returned prisoners of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam and we marvel at how they kept going. The most common thread in these stories was three things that helped them survive captivity and return with honor: faith in God, faith in their fellow prisoners, and faith in their country.
May I say to all former prisoners of wars that you are a testament to the strength and the character of the American people. You are a symbol of our nation’s patriotic spirit. Your heroism is as old as war itself, as old as names like Andersonville, Los Banos, German Stalag, Camp 5, and the famous Hanoi Hilton.
These places are empty today but those who suffered there clung on to the belief that their government and their loved ones would be semper fi---“always faithful.” We honor you, those still missing in action and that honor is unending.
Thank You. God Bless you and God bless the United States of America.
Jessie Bellflowers is All-American Post Commander of VFW Post 10630 in Hope Mills; District 8 Senior-Vice Commander; and National Aide de Camp.
Monday 21 September 2009 - Untitled Comment
I wish to express my deepest gratitude to the Veterans of Foreign Wars for their dedication to the cause of recovery of all American missing in action service personnel.
Gary Zaetz
Nephew of USAAF 1st Lt. Irwin Zaetz, missing over the Hump, January 25, 1944
Cary, North Carolina
Posted by Anonymous
