Nearly 83,000 American service members are listed as missing in action according to the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).
Included are more than 73,000 from World War II, over 7,000 from the Korean War, 126 during the Cold War, 1,626 from the Vietnam Wa; and six from conflicts since 1991.
More than 41,000 have been presumed lost at sea and classified as unrecoverable.
Congress established POW/MIA Recognition Day with resolutions passed starting in 1979 and designated the third Friday in September as the permanent national day of observance by passage of Section 1082 of the 1998 Defense Authorization Act.
The day honors those who were prisoners of war (POWs) and servicemembers still listed as missing in action (MIAs) since World War II.
Winnemucca Mayor Richard Stone and Humboldt County Commission Chairman James L. French have each issued official proclamations declaring this Friday, Sept. 20, 2019, as POW/MIA Recognition Day.
The proclamations were accepted by Korean War veteran Charles "Chuck" Evans and Vietnam War veteran Leon Franklin in a ceremony at the Humboldt County Courthouse and by Franklin in a ceremony at City Hall.
Franklin, a retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, received the nation's third highest award for valor, the Silver Star, for leading the Nov. 21, 1970 raid on the Son Tay prisoner of war camp in North Vietnam in the effort to liberate American and Allied servicemen from captivity.
Members of Winnemucca-based American Legion Post 5, American Legion Auxiliary Unit 5, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 12116, Vietnam Veterans of American Chapter 744, the Winnemucca Police Department and other area residents will meet at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 20, 2019, in front of the POW flagpole at the Winnemucca Police Station, 500 East Winnemucca Boulevard, for in observance of national POW/MIA Recognition Day. The ceremony is open to the public.
The American Legion Family, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Vietnam Veterans of America and the League of POW/MIA Families are all dedicated to ensuring that America's POWs/MIAs are honored and recognized annually. These organizations are also united in seeking as full and complete accounting as possible of those still missing, alive or dead, and support continued funding for the DPAA.
For additional information, please contact Lewis Trout at 775-623-2710.
