by Rees Lloyd

The third Friday of September is annual “POW/MIA Recognition Day,” a day to remember the service and suffering of prisoners of war, and those still missing in action — and their families; a day to honor them, and to reaffirm the commitment to search for and bring home the MIAs.

It is one of six days on which Congress has mandated that the National League of Families POW/MIA Flag be flown over the Capitol, the White House, military bases, veterans memorials and cemeteries, post offices, and other locations nationwide. (36 U.S. Code Section 902)

There are still over 88,000 American military personnel listed as missing in action, from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom. Searching for, and bringing home the MIAs, is an extremely difficult but most meaningful effort: Most recently, the remains of the last of 49 Americans listed as missing in action in Operation Desert Storm, U.S. Navy Captain Michael Scott Speicer, were identified in Iraq and returned home to his family in August.

There will be observances of POW/MIA Recognition Day on Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, in many areas of the country, especially at military installations, ships at sea, veterans memorials,veterans cemeteries, and by veterans of the American Legion, the VFW, and other organizations at thousands of Posts and communities across the country.

National ceremonies at the Pentagon’s River Terrace Parade Field, will include a march-in-review, a joint service fly-over by helicopters and jet fighters, and statements by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General James Cartwright, and a keynote speech by formerVietnam War POW Rear Admiral Jeremiah A. Denton (USN, ret.), former U.S.Senator (R-Alabama).

Admiral Denton, who will be speaking in a representative capacity, was a POW in Vietnam for seven years and seven months, four years of which he was held in solitary confinement because of his resistance to demands that he denounce and betray his country. He refused despite horrendous torture.
Indeed, when his communist captors attempted to use him for propaganda in a video to be broadcast on U.S. television, Denton outwitted them by affecting an eye-twitch by which he in fact blinked “T-O-R-T-U-R-E” in morse code, confirming that U.S. POWs were being tortured. He was terribly tortured when the Vietnamese communists realized what he had done.

Admiral Denton has detailed the torture inflicted upon American POWs, and how they survived it and kept the faith, in his powerful and moving book, “When Hell Was In Session,” a new edition of which is to be released on Veterans Day by WND Books.

Also suffering, though often not recognized, are the families of POWs and MIAs. On POW/MIA Recognition Day 2008, the American Legion Department of California, upon motion of District 21 (Riverside County) supported actively by District 22 (San Diego County), honored Admiral Denton by establishing a plaque for him at the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial in San Diego, honoring all POWs by honoring him in a representative as well as individual capacity.

In the installation ceremonies at Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial, Michael Denton, one of Admiral Denton’s sons, delivered a moving tribute to his father, which brought home the impact on the families of the POWs, and MIAs, who, year after year, hour by hour, must wait and wonder about the fate of their loved ones held in captivity, or missing in action.

I urge, too, that Admiral Denton’s book, “When Hell Was In Session,” which I think should be in every American classroom and home, be read again, or for the first time, when the new edition is released on Veterans Day by WND Books.

I read “When Hell Was In Session” when the 1997 edition came out. I was so moved by the humanity expressed by Admiral Denton in his “Dedication” that I cut it out and taped it to my desk, where I have seen it every day since. I leave off this report on POW/MIA Recognition Day 2009, by quoting Admiral Denton’s dedicatory words:

“To those who strive to make this one nation under God, who are willing to sacrifice to protect her, who thank God for such great beauty as she has developed, and who patiently tolerate her imperfections.”

May God bless Admiral Jeremiah Denton, and all the other POWs and MIAs, and their
families – and may we Americans never forget them.

(Rees Lloyd is a Life Member and Judge Advocate American Legion Post 79, Past Commander and Scribe District 21 (Cal.), and Director, Defense of Veterans Memorials Project, of the American Legion Dept. of California*)