Honor those who didn’t return from war today
<p class="p1">This is the one day each year, National POW/MIA Recognition Day, to honor our missing service members and their families, and is a reminder that not all prisoners of war and those missing in action have returned home.</p><p class="p3">Each and every American should support these missing from our armed forces, and their families by demanding of the federal government the fullest possible accounting of each and every one.</p><p class="p3">While we would like to think nobody gets left behind in war, the facts tell us otherwise. </p><p class="p3">According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the number of Americans listed as returned and identified since the end of the Vietnam War is 956. Another 63 U.S. personnel, recovered by the U.S. and identified before the end of the war, bring the total of U.S. personnel accounted for form the Vietnam War to 1,019.</p><p class="p3">Of the 1,627 still missing and unaccounted for, 90 percent were lost in Vietnam or in areas of Cambodia and Laos under Vietnam’s wartime control.</p><p class="p3">Also, there are still 73,515 U.S. personnel missing from World War II; 7,841 from the Korean War; 126 from the Cold War; and six from Iraq and other conflicts for a total of 83,114, according to the Department of Defense.</p><p class="p3">The most recently recovered and identified include Cpl. George H. Mason, U.S. Army, lost Feb. 14, 1951 in North Korea, accounted for Sept. 8, 2015; Pfc. James P. Reilly, U.S. Marine Reserves, missing since Nov. 20, 1943, Tarawa Island, World War II, accounted for Sept. 5, 2015; Cpl. James D. Otto, U.S. Marines, Nov. 20, 1943, Tarawa Island, World War II, accounted for Sept. 5, 2015; Cpl. Robert E. Meyers, U.S. Army, Dec. 1, 1950, North Korea, accounted for Sept. 4, 2015.</p><p class="p3">There have been 44 other missing in action personnel identified this year from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.</p><p class="p3">A spokesman for the National League of POW/MIA Families noted, “Several of those named this year were examples of how remains repatriated many years ago can now be identified using contemporary science that wasn’t available in earlier years.”</p><p class="p3">Responsible for carrying out this sacred duty is the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which has a world-class workforce to fulfill our nations obligation to provide for the fullest possible accounting of Prisoners of War and Missing in Action.</p><p class="p3">You can find more information about this issue at DoD’s web site, http://www.dpaa.mil/Home.aspx, and at the National League of POW/MIA Families at http://www.pow-miafamilies.org/.</p>