News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci
(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: DPMO Update 18th September

Date: September 21, 1998

Defense POW/MIA Weekly Update

September 18, 1998

NATIONAL POW/MIA RECOGNITION DAY, 1998

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE HOSTS NATIONAL CEREMONY

Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen hosted the National POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony at the Pentagon on Friday.

President Clintonâs proclamation cited the sacrifices of Americaâs servicemen and women and their families, especially those whose fate is still undetermined. The POW/MIA flag is flown this day over the White House, The U. S. Capitol, the Departments of State, Defense, and Veterans Affairs, the Selective Service System headquarters, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, Post Offices, major military installations and national cemeteries across the country. Additionally, many states, communities, family and veteran organizations commemorate the day in local ceremonies.

In addition to remarks by Secretary Cohen, retired Air Force Colonel Norman A. McDaniel addressed the audience of former POWs, families, veterans, servicemen and women at the formal ceremony at the River Entrance Parade Field outside the Pentagon. Colonel McDanielâs aircraft was shot down over North Vietnam in 1966. He was held captive as a POW for more than six years.

The event, traditionally held on the third Friday in September, included formal military honors with assembled troops from all the services. A flyover of military aircraft concluded with the "Missing Man" formation.

Speech by Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen September 18, 1998 National POW/MIA Recognition Day Ceremony The Pentagon, Washington, DC

Ambassadors [Jim] Bolger [New Zealand] and [Banny] deBroom [Marshall Islands], Members of Congress, Secretary [Togo] West, Secretary [Luis] Caldera, General [Dennis] Reimer, Colonel and Mrs. [Norman] McDaniel and their son Chris, veterans, Janet, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

In 1984 President Reagan said America would never abandon its efforts to account for those missing-in-action. "We write no last chapters," he said. "We close no books. We put away no final memories."

That commitment took us back to the green grass and the marble monuments of Arlington Cemetery this spring. We disturbed the hallowed ground of the Tomb of the Unknowns with profound reluctance. But we took that somber step to identify the Vietnam Unknown, to ease the lingering anguish of an American family and to fulfill our abiding commitment to provide the fullest possible accounting of every warrior who fought and died to preserve the freedoms we cherish.

That same commitment takes us to far away lands every day; lands where the roar and rumble of battle have long since faded. It takes us to remote graves and crash sites, where dedicated teams of Americans strain the mud and sift the dirt. They know that even the very smallest clue might help bring home one more American.

We carry on this noble work in the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. We go to the forests of New Guinea, to the heights of the Himalayas, to the hard ground of North Korea, to the mountains of southern China and even to the depths of the Norwegian Sea. And at this very moment we even have a team in Germany in the hope of bringing home a B-24 bomber crew from World War II.

Now some may ask why we go to such lengths, why we do this for the dead. We do it because we are committed to all of our warriors, present and past. We are committed to their families, whose pain has endured for decades. Americaâs fallen heroes did not face the horror of battle for us to turn away from their sacrifice. They did not fight for us to forget.

On this day we also honor those who served America as prisoners-of-war. They answered the call of duty even when it meant unending days of dark cells and squalid camps. This yearâs commemoration also marks a special milestone -- the 25th Anniversary of the return of our POWs from Southeast Asia. I think the emotion and relief of Operation Homecoming are forever etched in our minds. The cheers of our men as they were lifted up from North Vietnam for the last time aboard a C-141, the so-called "Hanoi Taxi." That unforgettable photo of a daughter and her father, arms outstretched, running across the tarmac in the Philippines. The hundreds of homecomings in small towns and big cities.

I had the honor of standing with some of these former POWs in the shadow of the Hanoi Taxi just four months ago during our celebration of Armed Forces Day. That plane and its brave passengers, like their comrades from all wars who join us today, remind us: freedom is never free. Its currency is the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, and few have paid a higher price in the name of duty than Americaâs former prisoners-of-war. It is now our duty, as the beneficiaries of the freedom we continue to enjoy, to never forget their service.

So I am pleased to announce that the Department of Defense is publishing a full-length history of the remarkable experience of our Vietnam POWs. This account, entitled Honor Bound, secures their rightful place high on the rolls of U.S. servicemen and women who have distinguished themselves while in enemy hands. It will be a powerful testament for posterity.

One of those who endured the trials and trauma as a prisoner-of-war during Vietnam joins us today. Janet and I first met Colonel Norman McDaniel and his wife Jean this spring, when they joined us in Norfolk for our celebration of 50 years of racial integration in the Armed Forces. I am grateful they could be with us again today.

In 1966, then-Captain McDanielâs reconnaissance plane was shot down over North Vietnam. That began a period of six years of confinement, the "never-ending" years as he later called them, in that unspeakable squalor of hellholes known as the Hanoi Hilton and the Zoo.

Ladies and gentlemen, for over six years, his diet was mostly rice and swamp water. For six years, he endured isolation, interrogations and torture. But he and his fellow POWs had a motto: "We fight from within, and we return with honor."

Captain McDaniel was one of only a handful of African-Americans held as a prisoner at the time. The North Vietnamese tried to exploit examples of racism in our country to drive a wedge between Norman McDaniel and America. He refused. His captors had misjudged the courage of this man and the strength of the nation that produced him.

After five years in captivity, at the depths of despair, he wrote some words that I think still capture the full power of his quiet strength: "Iâm still a man though Iâm badly bent. Iâll hope and strive until my life is spent."

Captain McDaniel did indeed return with honor and his story inspires us to this day. Ladies and gentlemen, it is truly my great privilege to introduce to you a man who has spent his life in brave and proud service to America, Colonel Norman McDaniel.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

For more than two centuries, America has been blessed by the service and sacrifice of the men and women of our Armed Forces. Often leaving home and family, they have fought to preserve our freedom, protect our national interests, and advance American values and ideals around the globe. These valiant heroes have risked -- and many have lost -- their lives in service to our Nation and for the well-being of their fellow Americans.

Each year, on National POW/MIA Recognition Day, we acknowledge with special gratitude and profound respect those who paid for our freedom with their own, and we remember with deep sorrow those whose fate has never been resolved. Americans who were held as prisoners of war throughout our history endured the indignities and brutality of captivity without surrendering their devotion to duty, honor, and country. With steadfast hearts and indomitable spirit, these patriots never gave up on America because they knew that America, and the American people, would never give up on them.

In the same way, we will never give up on our efforts to obtain the fullest possible accounting of every American missing in service to our country. We reaffirm our pledge to their families to search unceasingly for information about those missing and to seek the repatriation of those who have died and whose remains have not been recovered. By doing so we keep faith with our men and women in the Armed Forces and with the families who have suffered the anguish of not knowing the fate of their loved ones.

On September 18, 1998, the flag of the National League of Families of American Prisoners of War and Missing in Southeast Asia, a black and white banner symbolizing America's missing and our fierce determination to account for them, will be flown over the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Departments of State, Defense, and Veterans Affairs, the Selective Service System Headquarters, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, national cemeteries, and other locations across our country.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 18, 1998, as National POW/MIA Recognition Day. I ask all Americans to join me in honoring former American prisoners of war and those whose fate is still undetermined. I also encourage the American people to remember with compassion and concern the courageous families who persevere in their quest to know the fate of their missing loved ones.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-third.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON