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National POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony to be held at Savannah Veterans Park

Local veterans organizations Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4606 and American Legion Post 28 will be honoring America’s prisoners of war and missing in action on Friday, Sept. 20, which is National POW/MIA Recognition Day.
The ceremony will be conducted at Savannah Veterans Park at 6 p.m. The two organizations are calling out for local help in identifying anyone in the area who may have been a prisoner of war or with ties to anyone missing in action, or any family, friends or loved ones of anyone in either category.
According to Lanny Sartor, former post commander of VFW 4606, America currently has more than 82,000 military members missing in action since World War II, and during WWII over 130,000 Americans were taken prisoner.
In Korea, over 7,100 Americans were taken prisoner, and over 7,600 are still listed as missing in action.
According to the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Tennessee was home to 1,216 of those missing in action from WWII, 171 Tennesseans are still unaccounted for from Korea, and 26 missing in action in Vietnam are from the Volunteer State.
Sartor says the upcoming ceremony is not only to remember and honor the service and sacrifice of those POW/MIAs, but to “remember the sacrifices of their families who continue to grieve. It is true that the costs of war extend far beyond the last shots being fired, and for MIA families, the passage of time does not heal their wounds.”
He said Americans have a duty to “leave no one behind,” and to continue to endeavor to return every American to U.S. soil.
The public is invited to join the veterans organizations who are conducting the ceremony for National POW/MIA Recognition Day.
For those who know of an area POW/MIA, or who may have been a POW, and would like special recognition at the ceremony, contact Tommy Lewis at 731-607-9095 or Lanny Sartor at 731-434-8183.

1 Comment

  1. Stone Foundation on September 15, 2019 at 11:47 am

    “His Lord said to him, Well done, you good and faithful servant…” Matthew 25:21.

    Podcasts of NO HOME FOR HEROES – History’s Military Mysteries: Missing In Action hosted by Chief Rick Stone are NOW available . Multiple FREE episodes are posted at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/no-home-for-heroes/id1451543200 and are also available on any other popular platform where you like to listen to podcasts or on the web site at ChiefRickStone.com

    Welcome home to all our recovered MIA’s! We share the joy of your family in your return! God Bless you and thanks to ALL who never forgot you and your service to our country!

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