Nellis remembers POWs, those MIA

by Airman 1st Class Mikaley Towle
99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

9/24/2014 - NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. -- They're in the maroon-colored vests sitting in the front row. They're bowing their heads in remembrance.

They're former prisoners of war who gathered here at Freedom Park to remember their brothers-in-arms and honor those missing in action during a POW/MIA Recognition Ceremony Sept. 19.

"I feel it's an honor to all of us ex-POWs, and when we get honored like this we take it seriously and realize that there are not many of us left," said William Dean Whitaker, a World War II veteran and former POW. "The ones that are left all have their stories to tell."

Whitaker, who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps' 603rd Bomb Squadron as a bombardier and navigator, was completing a mission on Nov. 2, 1944, when his B-17 was shot down over a synthetic oil plant in Murseburg, Germany, and he was subsequently held as a POW for seven months.

All of the crew members aboard the plane and many of the men he served with that survived the war have since passed away.

"I'm one of the few left," said Whitaker. "[The ceremony] is a way to honor all my brothers, especially the four that were killed by the Germans when we landed. I think about them all the time."

Col. Thomas E. Dempsey III, Nevada Test and Training Range commander, said as U.S. service members, we too must think about Whitaker's fallen brothers.

"All of the Americans still missing or unaccounted for are part of us," Dempsey said. "They are part of our nation bound by the same oath to the constitution that our Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen of today swear to protect... As we continue to serve our nation, we owe it to each and every one of them that we will never give up and never forget."

Dempsey also said that the day was not just a day to honor former POWs and those MIA, but we must also acknowledge that we are still at war, and more Americans may be captured by our nation's enemy.

As he concluded his speech, Dempsey gave service members one final solemn reminder.

"Freedom is not free. Freedom comes with a price," he said. "Today we remember the POWs and those MIA who fought to protect our freedom and lost theirs."