Re: SEA POW-MIAs Honored

Date: March 29, 2004

"Vietnam POWs, MIAs honored

MARIA KRAJNAK, Gazette Staff Writer

TAUNTON -- "The Star Spangled Banner" echoed throughout downtown, yesterday afternoon as citizens, war veterans and city officials gathered on the Church Green to honor the country’s prisoners of war and missing in action Vietnam veterans.

The short ceremony marked the Taunton Area Vietnam Veteran’s Associates 21st annual POW/MIA Remembrance Day, which the city proclaims shall fall on every last Sunday of March. During the remembrance ceremony, participants formed a circle around the Church Green’s fountain and faced the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where speakers addressed the crowd on the cold, windy day.

"They did their part," said Herbert Darling, president of the association, as he read a prayer on top of the memorial. "They sacrificed much. They did their all. Let them not be forgotten by the people of this great nation. We won’t forget. We can’t forget. We must not forget. Bring them home. Bring them home."

But for the 59,000 Vietnam soldiers who never returned home from the war, the question "what if" still haunts Dennis Proulx, past president of the veteran’s association.

"The fact is we did have Vietnam," he told the crowd of 30 people. "We still have 1,865 POW/MIAs left in South East Asia."

But if it was not for the association and similar groups’ constant push to see the return of their fellow soldiers, there would still be 2,600 POW/MIAs over there, Proulx said.

Instead 600 remains have been returned since the association got involved.

"There families have been able to set their minds at ease and bury their loved ones," he added.

During the ceremony, a line of participants read off the 43 Massachusetts names of POW/MIAs, which were printed on homemade dog tags. Each dog tag was hung on a bamboo post.

Among the mixed crowd, were VFW Post 611 members, ROTC Cadets from Taunton High School and Boy Scout Troop 40 members, as well as Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, State Rep. James Fagan, D-Taunton, and Mayor Robert Nunes.

Borrowing a quote from Shakespeare, Fagan said: "The memory of a good man fades fast. The memory of the sacrifices that have been made by the Vietnam veterans and the men and women serving our country in our military would fade so very, very quickly if it were not for the efforts of the Vietnam veterans and all war veterans keeping their memory alive."

©The Taunton Gazette 2004"