booksbenji
09-15-06, 07:00 AM
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West Texas celebrates POW/MIA/KIA Day
Stephanie Miller Staff Writer
Midland Reporter-Telegram
09/15/2006
People should celebrate POW/MIA Day to "keep remembering it," said former prisoner of war (POW) Bill King. King, 86, was a POW for three years after he and his squad were captured in 1943 in Africa while setting up a B-17 landing strip.
"I didn't believe it," King said as he and his squadron, including 12 Americans and some French men, were taken hostage by Germans.
According to a statement released by Hanger 25 Air Museum, families of those serving in the Vietnam War started to recognize the status of loved ones still missing. As the war faded, the POW/MIA movement temporarily ceased after the 1973 "Operation Homecoming," but efforts resurfaced in the 1980s. Each year, a presidential proclamation has been issued and based from tradition, National POW/MIA Day is observed on the third Friday of September.
"It's completely designed to focus on the POWs, MIAs and KIAs and it's important because it's the families -- the wives, the mothers, the fathers -- that have been left behind. They've made this push for those sons and daughters to be remembered," said Heather Wallace, museum administrator of the museum.
In honor of the day, the museum, Vietnam Veterans of America and Big Spring Vietnam Memorial are sponsoring a POW/MIA/KIA ceremony today. It begins at Hanger 25 Air Museum in Big Spring and ends at the Vietnam Memorial near Midland International Airport.
King, who now lives in Coahoma, will be honored at an evening reception. He credits his training in the U.S. Army, in which he served five years, as a factor that helped him endure being a prisoner of war.
"It was not pretty good," King said of the diet that consisted of goat meat, brussels sprouts and others he and his squad ate while imprisoned. But the Italian soldiers who watched over them were good to them, he said.
Don Boling, president of VVA Chapter 379 and chairman for Texas POW/MIA will be the master of ceremonies at today's event, which starts at 6 p.m. and includes a candlelight ceremony.
* I prefer Remembrance instead of Recognition.
http://www.thesquadbay.com/forum2/Smileys/default/handsalute.png
West Texas celebrates POW/MIA/KIA Day
Stephanie Miller Staff Writer
Midland Reporter-Telegram
09/15/2006
People should celebrate POW/MIA Day to "keep remembering it," said former prisoner of war (POW) Bill King. King, 86, was a POW for three years after he and his squad were captured in 1943 in Africa while setting up a B-17 landing strip.
"I didn't believe it," King said as he and his squadron, including 12 Americans and some French men, were taken hostage by Germans.
According to a statement released by Hanger 25 Air Museum, families of those serving in the Vietnam War started to recognize the status of loved ones still missing. As the war faded, the POW/MIA movement temporarily ceased after the 1973 "Operation Homecoming," but efforts resurfaced in the 1980s. Each year, a presidential proclamation has been issued and based from tradition, National POW/MIA Day is observed on the third Friday of September.
"It's completely designed to focus on the POWs, MIAs and KIAs and it's important because it's the families -- the wives, the mothers, the fathers -- that have been left behind. They've made this push for those sons and daughters to be remembered," said Heather Wallace, museum administrator of the museum.
In honor of the day, the museum, Vietnam Veterans of America and Big Spring Vietnam Memorial are sponsoring a POW/MIA/KIA ceremony today. It begins at Hanger 25 Air Museum in Big Spring and ends at the Vietnam Memorial near Midland International Airport.
King, who now lives in Coahoma, will be honored at an evening reception. He credits his training in the U.S. Army, in which he served five years, as a factor that helped him endure being a prisoner of war.
"It was not pretty good," King said of the diet that consisted of goat meat, brussels sprouts and others he and his squad ate while imprisoned. But the Italian soldiers who watched over them were good to them, he said.
Don Boling, president of VVA Chapter 379 and chairman for Texas POW/MIA will be the master of ceremonies at today's event, which starts at 6 p.m. and includes a candlelight ceremony.
* I prefer Remembrance instead of Recognition.
http://www.thesquadbay.com/forum2/Smileys/default/handsalute.png