National POW/MIA Recognition Day

Yes there is a National POW/MIA Recognition Day, by law it is the 3rd friday in september. (that would be today!) i bet most of ya didn't even know there was a day reserved for this group did you? it's not your fault; we don't hear about it, we aren't taught about it, there are no parades or ceremonies broadcast all over cnn, no speaches in either house of congress and no speaches by presidents (i won't say never, but i have yet to hear one), and most communities don't do anything to remember either. well, i guess this is my little attempt to enlighten just a few people. "YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN"...Those are the words on the POW/MIA Flag. (which was designed by Newt Heisley, a WW II pilot). Only one flag besides the Stars and Stripes that represents the United States has ever flown over the White House in Washington, DC. Only one flag is ever displayed in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda...the POW/MIA Flag. It is there to remind us that, while we enjoy the privileges of freedom, somewhere there are soldiers who have not been accounted for and may, in fact, still be held against their will. The design for the POW/MIA flag was never copyrighted. It is a flag that belongs to every citizen of the U.S., a design that hauntingly reminds us of those we dare not ever forget. Behind the black and white silhouette is a face we can't see...the face of a hero who has paid with their freedom, for our freedom.what's sad is that so many people don't even know what POW/MIA stands for. i can't count the number of times i have had people ask me what pow mia (say those two as words, not individual letters) is. so for anyone who may be reading this and not know, it stands for Prisoner of War (POW) and Missing in Action (MIA). i just figure that since this is POW/MIA Recognition Day i would share the numbers with you. these numbers may be off, depending on the source, and as much as i wish i could find a precise number for all of these, i can't, so these numbers will have to do for now i guess: the TOTAL NUMBER OF RECORDED POW/MIA'S FROM ALL U.S. WARS: (POW's are the first number and MIA's are the second number...in some instances the numbers are combined because i simply couldn't find separate numbers from a source that i thought was actually credible)
Revolutionary War..........18,152 POW's........1,426 MIA's
War of 1812......................20,000...................695
Mexican War...................46............................238
Indian War......................unknown................unknown
Civil War-Union..............194,743 (combined)
Civil War-Confederate...214,865 (combined)
Spanish/American War.8...............................72
World War I....................7,470 (combined)
World War II..................124,079...................30,314
Cold War Era..................unknown.................343
Korean War....................7,140........................8,177
Vietnam War.................2,583 (combined)
U.S.S Pueblo..................82..........................0
Grenada.........................0............................4
Persian Gulf War..........52 (combined)
Somalia..........................6.............................2
Afghanistan...................1 (combined)
Iraqi Freedom..............3 (combined)
{I'm sure the numbers for those last two are different, in fact i know i've seen different numbers myself, but when i started actually looking for the numbers i hit that proverbial brick wall}Now to the worst part...there are STILL over 100,000 American Armed Forces Personnel listed as either POW or MIA!!! here are some of those numbers (combined, not broken down by whether they are POW or MIA)
World War I........3,349
World War II......78,976
Cold War.............124
Korea...................8,259
Vietnam...............2,005
Afghanistan.........1
Iraqi Freedom....3
Again, those are some of the numbers of American Military Personnel who are STILL listed as being either a POW or MIA!now i'm not going to turn this into a discussion on politics, but this country says that they "are not forgotten" yet when live sightings come up (i saw one statistic that said there were approx. 50 live sightings of American POW's in Southeast Asia alone (that's the Vietnam area) from 1996-2001) the government drags their feet and looks for ways to discredit those reports instead of actually investigating. i've seen too many reports from people who worked in that government agency, and heard too much of their testimony after they resigned their posts out of contempt and anger, to believe that this country will ever actively pursue another lead of a POW or MIA from the Vietnam period or earlier. it is the one area of our government where i have always been absolutely disgusted.now i'm not going to sit here and say that if there are any still alive that i would trade places with them so that they could come home (i would like to think i would! but honestly, how could you ever know the answer to that question) but i will say that if they came to me today and said they had the location of a POW or MIA i would go, by myself if i had to. of course neither one of those two things will ever happen but it gets my point across. and if it ever comes out that we had the chance to get one of those POW's or MIA's and the person at the top simply said no, and turned their backs on them...well, use your imagination