National POW/MIA Recognition Day Set for Sep 19

National POW/MIA Recognition Day Set for Sep 19
American Forces Press Service
The remains of nine US Navy crewmembers, missing in action from the
Vietnam War, were laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery in June.
That final action brought closure to their status 35 years after their
plane's disappearance over Laos.
"If we send men and women into harm's way, we have an obligation to do
everything in our power to account for them," Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Affairs
Jennings said here Sep 15. "That means if they're POWs, to rescue and
return them; if they've died in combat and are missing, to locate and
return their remains with honor -- return them to their family and
loved ones."
More than 600 US specialists work every day around the world to locate
and identify the more than 88,000 Americans still missing from World
War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the 1991
Gulf War. The remains of more than 700 Americans who were missing as a
result of the Vietnam War have been identified.
Sep 19 is National POW/MIA Recognition Day, a time that should be in
the forefront of everyone's minds, said Jennings. "It's the one day of
the year when we honor those who fought and died or who are missing,
those that may still be POWs, and those we have yet to recover from
around the world from all wars since World War II," he added. The work
of Jennings' office, however, continues year-round. There are teams in
North Korea, Russia, Vietnam, China, Papua New Guinea and Cambodia.
"Cambodia is extremely cooperative. We have a free hand to look
anywhere in that country we want to for remains," said the former
Marine who served as an intelligence officer with the CIA in Southeast
Asia from 1965 to 1968. "We have people conducting recovery operations
in North Korea. We don't take a high profile, but we're there."
Jennings said his office receives thousands of leads. "If someone
thinks they've spotted an American in North Korea, Vietnam or
Cambodia, we follow up until we can say, 'No, it was not an
American,'" he said.
"We believe there is a possibility that POWs have survived in these
wars (Korea and Vietnam) and could be held against their will," he
added. "As long as we continue to get leads, we'll continue to follow
up."
Jennings also is a commissioner on the US-Russian Joint Commission on
POW/MIAs, which seeks to clarify the fates of American and Russian
service members from conflicts since World War II. Earlier this month,
Jennings passed documents to the Russians that clarified the fates of
202 Soviet servicemen from the Korean War. American researchers
working in Russian and American archives had located the information,
according to a Department of Defense news release.
Every month, staff from the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office set
up shop in a major US city. Families who have missing loved ones are
invited for updates on what "their government is doing to work their
cases," said Jennings.
Jennings said the people who work in his office are there because they
want to be. "It's a mission of the heart," he added. "It's a mission
where there's a lot of emotion involved. Few people could survive
working this mission unless they really believed in it."
The 2003 POW/MIA Recognition Day poster
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/powday/pow_..._03_poster.htm
[NOTE: That page gives you a choice of size/format.]
reflects on the past as well as the present, noted Jennings at the
unveiling of the poster June 26. The somber, black POW/MIA flag -- a
national symbol -- is a firm reminder of those still missing and of
their families who have waited decades for answers, Jennings said. The
words "You are not forgotten" on the bottom of the flag remind us of
their sacrifice for our freedom, he added.
The rippling red, white and blue banner, so clear and so proud through
the smoke of battle, said Jennings, leads American warriors forward
toward "freedom" for oppressed peoples, who know the word only because
it means "America."
"Freedom" lies in the hearts of the people of the entire nation, he
added. "It lies in the ideas so richly American, and it rests on the
shoulders of those who we honor on this special day."