National POW and MIA Recognition Day at the Alabama State Capitol
A ceremony to commemorate National POW and MIA Recognition Day was held on the South Lawn of the Alabama State Capitol. The ceremony honored the brave men and women who endured the hardships as Prisoners of War and the Missing in Action who are still unaccounted for. It also recognized their families who bore the cost of war.
Retired U.S. Army Major General Janet Cobb, who serves as executive director of the USS Alabama Battleship, delivered the keynote address. The ceremony included the raising of the POW/MIA Flag, and it featured patriotic music, a wreath laying ceremony, and the playing of Taps.
Traditionally, this ceremony is held on the third Friday in September, but this year it was moved to Saturday to accommodate and encourage public attendance. Kent Davis is the Commissioner of ADVA, and he says, “Statistics at the national level show that they’re over 81,000 still missing in action from World War II on. That’s a lot of families who still don’t know the fate of their love ones, and this is a day to stop and remember those families, those service members, and the service members that suffered horrible fates as prisoners of war under terrible conditions.”
Tom Long is the President of the Blue Star Salute Foundation, and he says, “We represent 227 of those veterans who died in the War on Terror all from Alabama, and it’s important for people, especially young people, to understand that there’s a price for the freedoms that we enjoy every day.”
The observance is one of six days during the year that Congress has mandated flying of the POW/MIA flag at federal buildings. In 2008, The Alabama Legislature passed a bill that allows the flag to be flown at state buildings as well.
