By Nick Simeone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2014 – A solemn ceremony was held
today on the Pentagon’s River Parade Field to mark POW/MIA Recognition Day, an
annual event that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called a reminder that the
nation will do whatever it takes to recover every service member and identify
the remains of all those still missing from past conflicts.
“Today, we are thankful that there are no U.S. troops being
held anywhere in captivity,” Hagel told an invited audience in the warmth of a
late summer morning that included the families of former prisoners of war and
those still listed as missing in action. “We know that there are still tens of
thousands of fallen Americans who remain missing from many wars. We must
continue to work hard to bring all of our missing Americans home.”
Some 83,000 Americans still are missing from past conflicts,
and Navy Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr., the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, told the audience that no military mission is considered complete until
all of the fallen are home.
Sacred obligation
“Today, as we fly the familiar black and white flag across
our country, it’s not only a symbol to honor the POW/MIA community,” he said,
“it’s a reminder of our sacred obligation to the men and women we place in
harm’s way to never leave our fallen behind.”
Today’s ceremony took place four months after the last
American war prisoner, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, was handed over to the U.S.
military after being held for nearly five years by the Haqqani network while
deployed to Afghanistan, and as the Pentagon continues an overhaul of the
agencies responsible for recovering and identifying the remains of America’s
war dead.
“We’ve made progress in this transformation, and the new
Defense Personnel Accounting Agency will achieve initial operating capability
this January,” Hagel said, six months after he announced a reorganization of
the Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office and the Joint POW/MIA
Accounting Command in an overhaul that he said is aimed at reducing
inefficiency and making the effort “stronger, more effective, more transparent
and more responsive.”
“We will do better not only in more effectively accounting
for our missing personnel, but also ensuring that their families receive timely
and accurate information,” Hagel pledged.
Over the past year, he said, the department has been able to
account for 71 service members from World War II, Korea and Vietnam. He said
Vietnam has been providing an increasing number of archival documents to help
in locating Americans missing from the war there.
Special recognition
Max Cleland, an Army veteran who lost both legs and his
right arm in combat -- and, like Hagel, served both in the Senate and in
Vietnam -- received special recognition at today’s event. The defense secretary
said Cleland represents the nation’s finest qualities and has continued to
serve the nation with great distinction. He led the Veterans Administration
from 1977 to 1981, and most recently has chaired the American Battle Monuments
Commission.
On a day that he said helps the nation establish a sense of
meaning out of loss, Cleland sought to give hope to those who continue to wait
for recovery of their loves ones, and recalled the words of a soldier after the
Battle of Waterloo: “God and the soldier men adore in time of war, but not
before, and in time of peace, with all things righted, God is forgotten and the
soldier slighted.”
“I’m honored to be in a country and with a government that
forgets neither God nor the soldier,” he added.
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