Those who have not returned are remembered
by Dennis Ryan
Pentagram staff writer
William A. Tippins, 80, proudly walked around the Pentagon parade field last Friday wearing a baseball cap with the inscription "first from above Nov. 8, 1942." The hat also had the man's unit from World War II on the hat, the 209th parachute Infantry Battalion.
Tippins, as the ballcap indicated, participated in the first combat parachute jump in American military history into Algeria during the North African campaign. He went on to fight in Italy where he was captured at the Anzio beachhead on Feb. 29, 1944. The former prisoner of war was at the Pentagon to observe the National POW/MIA Recognition Day Ceremony.
The old paratrooper told how his unit "hit the beach" to arrive on Anzio.
"We took a hill twice and turned it over to Darby's Rangers and had to go back and capture it again" he said. "The third time we stayed."
Tippin's paratroopers were overrun and he was hit by shrapnel and spent 15 months in captivity.
Chaplain (Col.) James E. May delivered the invocation.
"America is the home of the brave but some of our brave are not home," he said of the search for those who have not returned. "When our human efforts fail we must turn to God."
Gen. Richard B. Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a veteran of service in Vietnam and the acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England served as co-hosts for the event.
"You can discover much about a nation by the way it honors its missing," Myers said. "Today we pause to remember those who served and are or were prisoners of war or are missing in action."
England told how the ceremony would be one the last official public chores for the soon to be retired Myers.
"He is a man whose presence alone is reassuring," England said. "We're here to remember. We're here to honor America's captives, who endured the worst of war to keep our nation safe. Those who serve today know if they fall this nation will spare no effort to bring them home."
Congressman Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and former Army Ranger who served in Vietnam, delivered the keynote address.
"I did nothing special in Vietnam," Hunter said. "I just showed up. My son [a serving Marine] took more incoming rounds in Fallujah in five minutes than I did in my entire time in Vietnam."
He went on to praise Myers as a "real chairman of the joint chiefs" before thanking the families of prisoners of war and those missing for attending.
"We should continue to resolve to account for all Americans [missing]," he said. "I will see to it that we have a full accounting. We should also honor prisoners of war and those missing in action by taking a message from them. We should stay strong."