Posted at 4:15 a.m., Saturday, September 15, 2007
POW/MIA Recognition Day set for Friday at Punchbowl
Advertiser Staff
HICKAM AFB, HAWAII - The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command willcommemorate National POW/MIA Recognition Day at the National Memorial
Cemetery of the Pacific [Punchbowl] at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 21.
Each year, a Presidential Proclamation designates the third Friday in
September as National POW/MIA Recognition Day. Highlights of this year's
ceremony include a wreath laying ceremony, speeches by distinguished
guests, and the playing of taps in recognition of prisoners of war and
those still missing in action from previous wars.
The ceremony will be led by JPAC's commanding general, Brig. Gen.
Michael Flowers. Keynote speaker will be U.S. Army Staff Sgt. (Ret) Nick
Nishimoto, a former Korean POW.
The ceremony is free and open to the public. At the conclusion of the
ceremony, the audience will be invited to tour the cemetery or lay
wreaths at the monument.
JPAC's mission is to conduct operations in support of achieving the
fullest possible accounting of Americans missing as a result of our
Nation's past conflicts.
One American is still missing from the Gulf War, more than 1,750 from
the Vietnam War, 120 from the Cold War, more than 8,100 from the Korean
War, and more than 78,000 from World War II.