News-Info-Alerts

Re: Remembering the Missing

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: September 14, 2003

"Veterans, families remember MIAs

By Linda May, Columnist September 13, 2003

"Body not recovered" is a perpetual nightmare for families of soldiers never found, says columnist Linda May.

"The reason this country is so aggressive about going after anyone left behind today, like we are in Iraq, is because of the stance the Vietnam vets took," veteran Bob Deckers said. "During the Vietnam War the government did not actively try to get even one person back, and we don't want what happened in Vietnam to happen to anyone else."

Deckers is president of Chapter 154 of Vietnam Veterans of America. He wears the prisoner of war/missing in action bracelet of Michigan U.S. Air Force pilot Frederick Wozniak, missing since Jan. 17, 1967.

Deckers had a chance meeting with the son of Wozniak's copilot, Gary Wright, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 1988.

"He gave me his dad's bracelet so I could wear them both till they both come home," Deckers said.

Three Michigan families of soldiers missing in action from the Vietnam War can have more peace since their loved ones' remains have been found and identified since last year.

Chapter 154's 19th annual 24-hour vigil is next weekend at the Michigan Remembers monument at Oakland Hills Memorial Gardens on 12 Mile Road and Novi Road in Novi. The memorial lists 77 Michigan men missing from the war that ended in 1975. Fifty-seven are still MIA, including Warren's Jeremy Michael Jarvis, U.S. Air Force, missing since July 25, 1967.

The VVA color guard, The Point Team, stands guard from 5 p.m. Sept. 20 to 5 p.m. Sept. 21. For vigil information, call the Veterans Support Center at (586) 776-9810.

Friday, POW/MIA National Recognition Day, the National League of Families holds its 25th annual ceremony paying tribute to America's POW/MIAs at the same Novi location at 6:30 p.m. The three families with recent resolutions for their loved ones will join the league to affix plaques with return dates onto the monument Friday.

"We come together and recognize and remember the POW/MIAs, especially the ones from the state of Michigan," said POW/MIA Committee of Michigan member Debbie McClain. Her uncle, Roland Pineau of Berkley, is still MIA.

Pineau was a 21-year Navy veteran serving his second tour in Vietnam when his E-1B radar plane crashed into a mountainside north of DaNang on Oct. 8, 1967.

McClain said that a U.S. government Joint Task Force/Full Accounting field activity team recently discovered a crash site within 100 meters of Pineau's last known whereabouts. Excavation begins next year.

Recognition Day honors all soldiers, sailors and airmen missing in action - more than 78,000 from World War II, 8,100 from the Korean War, 1,900 from Vietnam and 100 from the Cold War.

The fifth annual Michigan Remembers Run does also.

On Sept. 20, motorcyclists from around the state converge at 1:30 p.m. on the Capitol steps in Lansing. Staging site for Macomb County is at Wolverine Harley-Davidson on Gratiot Avenue at 10:30 a.m. For ride information, call Mike Harrington at (586) 752-5455.

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Former prisoners of war can now receive compensation for cirrhosis of the liver.

"It is the result of many years of hard work by the Veterans of Foreign Wars to ensure that veterans who are suffering from diseases associated (with) their imprisonment receive the benefits they justly deserve," said VFW service officer Ken Aune.

Algonac's VFW Post 3901 will conduct a POW/MIA service at 6 p.m., Friday, followed by a barbecued rib and chicken dinner for $8 per person. The post is at 1005 Pte. Tremble Road. Call (810) 794-3033.

The post's next Second Sunday Breakfast Buffet is from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. Cost is $5 for adults and $4 for children and seniors.

Send news of your service club to: Linda May c/o The Macomb Daily, P.O. Box 929, Mount Clemens MI 48046, or lindamay@ameritech.net. Phone/fax (586) 791-8116.


©The Macomb Daily 2003 "