POW/MIA Recognition Day
by admin on Sep.18, 2009, under Support Our Soldiers, Tribute, Veterans
Today is a day dedicated by the United States Air Force to remembering those lost without closure in past and current wars. Throughout our country’s history, many have been simply written off as MIA or POW – never to be found. Families couldn’t have closure on the final whereabouts of a loved one. But the organization JPAC (Joint Pow-MIA Accounting) is hoping to change that. They are engaging in the monumental task of collecting potential MIA victim remains, along with thousands of mitochondrial DNA samples, and comparing them in hopes of finding these lost soldiers. So today let us remember them and hope to one day bring them home.
Is there anything more horrific than burying a loved one felled in a war? Perhaps. Some families of those who have fought overseas have never received closure in the form of their loved ones’ remains or even a small personal memento. In 1947, having calculated that the whereabouts of 78,750 American soldiers remained unknown after World War II, the United States Air Force dedicated the third Friday of every September as POW/MIA Recognition Day.
Over the course of the next six decades, the number of missing warriors rose. The Korean War claimed 8,051; Viet Nam, 1,742. The Cold War took another 165 and the Gulf War, 7. To date, the sole American soldier missing in Iraq is Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie. These numbers do not include personnel killed in action and never brought home.
JPAC (Joint POW-MIA Accounting) is the governmental organization charged with the daunting task of locating, identifying, and returning to their native soil the aforementioned service men and women. Housed in Hawaii, JPAC has been headed, since 2008, by Rear Admiral Donna L. Crisp. Colonel John M. Sullivan serves as Deputy Commander, Johnnie E. Webb as Deputy Public Relations-Legislation Affairs, Sergeant Major Jackie D. Brown Jr. as Command Senior Enlisted Leader, and Dr. Thomas D. Holland as Scientific Deputy Director for the Central Identification Lab. In addition to these officers are teams dedicated to search and retrieval missions, comprising archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists, and deontologists. A quick second read of those job titles is indicative of the enormity of JPAC’s objectives.
…On the third Friday in September, the State of New Jersey honors its POW-MIA‘s with a breakfast sponsored by Assemblymen Jack Conners and Herb Conaway. These public officials invite veterans from all over the state to join in a memorial ceremony dedicated to the men and women who never made it home from the wars. Honored Guests at the 2008 event included WWII POW veteran Joseph O’Donnell, Mrs. Judith Young, who is a Past President of the “Gold Star Mothers,” Mrs. Anna Marko of Cherry Hill, an 84 year old widow of WWII POW Leon Marko, State Adjutant General Glenn Reith, Colonel Stephan Abel, and other veteran dignitaries.
