
National POW/MIA Recognition Day is by law, the 3rd Friday in September every year. This date honors those men and women still held in enemy hands or buried on foreign soil.
On August 10, 1990, the Congress passed a bill recognizing the black and white, POW/MIA flag as “the symbol of our Nation’s concern and commitment to resolving as fully as possible the fate of Americans still prisoner, missing and unaccounted for in Southeast Asia…”
In 1997, bills passed the House and Senate mandating the POW/MIA flag be flown on specific holidays.
The 1998 Defense Authorization act noted that the flag MUST be flown on: Memorial Day, Armed Forces Day, Flag Day, Veterans Day, Independence Day, POW/MIA Recognition Day.In 1998, the Veterans Administration noted the flag will fly EVERY day at their facilities.
A Pentagon ceremony for National POW/MIA Recognition Day will be held on Friday, Sept. 21, 2007. This ceremony will feature troops from each of the military services. The president will issue a proclamation commemorating the observances and reminding the nation of those Americans who have sacrificed so much for their country.
Observances of National POW/MIA Recognition Day are held across the country on military installations, ships at sea, state capitols, schools and veterans’ facilities.
POW Prayer
Please hear me ,Lord…..
It’s the dead of night…..
It is dark and cold,
the night surrounds me Like a blanket of hope.
As long as it is night, they will stay in their corner.
I lie here wondering ~
how long is it again?
I cling to the dream of my family ~
I see them in my mind.
It is another Independence Day at home.
When will my independence come?
I will NOT believe that they have forgotten me!!
I look in the hole I have dug here,
for the things that I hide from them.
A little smile across my lips~
in all this time they have never found my little stash!
I pull out a little scrap of shredded red and white.
For me, it waves in the breeze of home!
It is my salvation ~
it tells me there is hope.
There is a tiny piece of cloth,
a remnant of the uniform worn with the pride
only a soldier knows.
Ah, here is that little corner of the photo I once had!
They think they destroyed it ~
It is my private joke on them.
For I can still see the face of my little boy. But ~~~
he must be almost a man by now…
I am not sure?
How long has it been again?
They could not have forgotten me,
as they go from one day to the next without me.
I will not believe that!
If they have, I shall surely be swallowed
up in the mists of this hell!
How long has it been again?
No ~
they have not forgotten ~
how could they have?
Have they ?
My God?
Have they?
By Joanna Mckenzie Henshaw
If you would like, please visit my POW MIA page at my website.
I have many friends who served in Vietnam. Many that died there, many that died after they came home from Agent Orange. I pray each day for our POW’s and MIA’s that they will be brought home! You are NOT forgotten! As long as I breathe I will be thinking and praying for you. – Wild Thing
Recent Comments