Tim Gallaudet
This Friday Americans across the country will honor National Prisoner of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA) Recognition Day. A year ago on that day, I attended a wreath-laying ceremony and film screening at the United States Navy Memorial in Washington D.C. to recognize our nation’s POWs and MIAs. Speaking at the event was Commander (ret.) Everett Alvarez, Jr., the first pilot captured and held as a POW in the Vietnam War. He stated that America’s commitment to return all POWs home helped him endure the eight and a half years of imprisonment and torture that he endured while held captive by the North Vietnamese at the infamous prison dubbed the “Hanoi Hilton.”
Major General (ret.) Kelly McKeague, who serves as the director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) within the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) also attended the event, where he described his mission at DPAA as one aimed at providing the fullest possible accounting for our MIA personnel to their families and the nation — a mission he rightly characterized as “sacred.”
America’s military is exceptional in keeping its obligation to leave no one behind, whether with combat search and rescue or the repatriation of POWs and MIAs. Regarding the latter, nearly 82,000 Americans are still considered missing: 72,598 from World War II, 7,580 from the Korean War, 1,587 from Vietnam, 126 from the Cold War and six from other conflicts since 1991.
No comments:
Post a Comment