Commissioners Jim Cozza and Jon Lynch met with Henry Myers, Mike Plymale and Steven Betz, of VVA Local Chapter 709, to raise the POW/MIA flag in the park.
The POW/MIA flag is the only flag that is flown over the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and along with the American flag, is the only other flag to fly over the White House.
In 1998, Congress mandated flying the POW/MIA flag on the third Friday in September for National POW/MIA Recognition Day as well as on Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, and Veteran’s Day.
The idea for this honorary flag was thought up in 1971 by Mrs. Michael Hoff, an MIA wife and member of the National League of Families. It was designed by Norman Rivkees, vice president of Annin & Co., to represent our missing soldiers.
According to the proclamation read by Cozza, a national commemoration has been held yearly since 1979 to honor America’s prisoners of war and those missing in action.
In observing POW/MIA Recognition Day, citizens are reminded of those Americans who have sacrificed so much for their country, and of those service personnel and civilians still missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. The National POW/MIA Flag is flown as a symbol of our nation’s concern and commitment to resolving as fully as possible the fates of Americans still prisoner, missing, and unaccounted for in Southeast Asia.
Since 1973, the remains of more than 700 Americans killed in the Vietnam War have been returned and identified, though 1,757 Americans still remain missing in Southeast Asia.
On a local level, Albert Eugene Lee of Gallipolis served in the U.S. Navy during Vietnam and is listed as killed in action and body not recovered.
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