Local veterans gathered on Prospect Mountain Sunday afternoon to honor and remember America’s POWs and MIAs.“The history of this ceremony started back in 1969,” explained Warrensburg American Legion Post 446 Adjutant Gene Pierce. “We dedicated this highway (the Veterans Memorial Parkway, which winds up Prospect Mountain,) and we decided to have a ceremony every year. At the end of Vietnam, when we all came home and a lot of our prisoners didn’t, we decided to have a ceremony every year to demand an accounting of what happened to the men and women who never came home.”
More than 60 members of the Patriot Guard Riders of New York rode up the mountain on motorcycles flying American flags. The riders stood a flag line throughout the ceremony along with an American Legion Color Guard, firing squads and members of the Marine Corps League Memorial Detachment No. 2.
Pierce says that people question why they hold a ceremony each June when the third Friday of September is the nationally designated POW Day. Pierce points out that they have been holding this ceremony for POWS and MIAs since 1974. The national day wasn’t established until 1998. “So, there’s no reason why we can’t remember them on more than one day. That’s the reason we’re here today… to call attention to the men and women who are still missing.”
Finding the missing and bringing home their remains is a vital mission for these veterans. The Department of Defense, says Pierce, has done a good job over the past few years finding and identifying those missing in action. However, he says, “it’s kind of deceiving because most of the people they are identifying are coming out of the Punch Bowl ( the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii) … that’s where they buried men from the Oklahoma, the different battleships that they couldn’t identify at that time. They put them in there… we kind of knew where they were.”
The bigger challenge is finding the MIAs from Vietnam and Korea. Pierce is hopeful that the upcoming summit between President Trump and the North Korean leader will make it possible to resume searching for lost American Service members in that country. “We hope those talks go well because right now there are eight locations in the Chosin Reservoir where we believe we can recover at least 1,200 people.” The DoD currently puts the number of MIAs in Korea at 7,800.
“We remember these men and women who sacrificed to make our nation better, those who suffered, and those who did not return and have the opportunity to live,” says Guest Speaker Col. Karen Love. “They made a difference. They left the world a better place.” Col. Love, who retired from the military in 2007 after more than 30 years of service, asked those in attendance to honor POWs, MIAs and their families by choosing to live a good life and make a difference.
She expressed concern over what she sees as a loss of civility in the nation’s discourse. Col. Love told the audience that she is a person of God and believes in Jesus. “I share this not to ruffle anybody’s feathers, but to explain who I am and what I believe…if we live in a new world, a world of love and kindness, I should be able to say who I am and what I believe without anybody judging me or hating me.”
Col. Love’s speech, forcefully delivered, echoed off the surrounding mountains as she stressed that love is the answer. “We as a nation need to restore civility. We need to love. After all, we are a nation founded under God and indivisible.” Col. Love is currently a math teacher at Hadley-Luzerne High School. She says she teaches her students to think beyond self, serve others and be kind. She asks the same of those in her audience.
“As we stand on this mountain today honoring POWs, MIAs and their families, let’s dedicate ourselves to really making a difference. To love, to being a start — in our families, schools, community — to making this place better, to living a good life and making a difference. To act justly, love mercy and walk humbly before God, and this means every one of us.”
Denise Foster plays Taps at the POW/MIA ceremony on Prospect Mountain.
The ceremony concluded with a gun salute followed by the playing of Taps by Denise Foster. Pierce reminded the crowd that next year’s ceremony will be the 50th. “We’re going to be back on this mountain. It is also the 100th anniversary of the American Legion, so it’s going to be one great year.”