POW/MIA Recognition Day today

Southeast Missourian

The national government is recognizing prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action today.

The third Friday in September is usually reserved for the recognition, but Friday falls on a Jewish holiday this year, so the Department of Defense designated today the recognition day instead.

The Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau will share a moment of silence on today.

According to Larry Greer, a spokesman for the Department of Defense POW/MIA office, there are 600 specialists, including forensic and DNA specialists, who are working full time to find those who were or are missing in action.

Since World War II, 88,000 soldiers were captured or became missing. In Vietnam, 1,853 are still missing; 730 have been found. The specialists have recovered the remains of more than 200 from the Korean conflict and identified 15 of those bodies.

In the 1950s and 1960s, 126 pilots went missing while flying reconnaissance missions during the Cold War.

By far the war with the most unrecovered soldiers is World War II. In that war, 78,000 are still considered missing in action. The remains of about 400 have been found.