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Remember the POWs, MIAs
By Bill Shanaberger
The Vietnam Veterans Inc. of Fayette County toured the county on Dec. 28, 2007, in honor of POW/MIA family activist Evelyn Fowler Grubb, who died Dec. 28, 2006, of breast cancer at her home in Melbourne, Fla.
Mrs. Grubb, as coordinator of the National League of Families, played a part in creating the league's "You Are Not Forgotten" black-and-white flag.
On March 9, 1989, an official league flag, which flew over the White House on the 1988 National POW/MIA Recognition Day, was installed in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda as a result of legislation passed overwhelmingly during the 100th Congress.
In a demonstration of bipartisan congressional support, the leadership of both houses hosted the installation ceremony.
The League's POW/MIA flag is the only flag ever displayed in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda where it will stand as a powerful symbol of national commitment to America's POW/MIAs until the fullest possible accounting has been achieved for U.S. personnel still missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.
On Aug. 10, 1990, the 101st Congress passed U.S. Public Law 101-355, which recognized the League's POW/MIA flag and designated it "as the symbol of our Nation's concern and commitment to resolving as fully as possible the fates of Americans still prisoner, missing and unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, thus ending the uncertainty for their families and the Nation."
Mrs. Grubb took an unexpected step into the limelight after her husband, Air Force Capt. Wilmer Newlin "Newk" Grubb, was shot down over North Vietnam in January 1966. Mrs. Grubb and her organization also urged that the bodies of prisoners who died in prison be returned to their families. Her husband's remains were finally returned to the United States in 1974 and buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Mrs. Grubb was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from Penn State University. She received a master's degree in education from Penn State in 1954.
The message that the Vietnam Veterans wish to extend to the public is to request their support in memory of Mrs. Grubb, Capt. Grubb, and all those missing and to the many families that still wait for closure.
We ask that everyone do a small part. For one, fly the POW/MIA flag with the American flag as special reminders of those still missing from all wars.
Support your communities through your church, organizations and the united funds to fight cancer and visit the elderly and lonely residing in nursing homes. Volunteer just a small fraction of your time to assist someone in need.
Let's remember and assist the unfortunate in this new year; perhaps there is nothing much we can do to change the past, but we can change tomorrow -- even if only in some small way.
© 2008 The Tribune-Review Publishing Co.