National POW/MIA Recognition Day is observed on the third Friday of September. This year that Friday is September 18. The black-and-white flag that flies beneath, or beside, the Stars and Stripes carries a simple line: You Are Not Forgotten. It is not a slogan. It is a promise the United States made to every service member sent in harms way, and to the families who still keep a place at the table.
Americans remain unaccounted for from World War Il, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and later conflicts. Accounting work continues through the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, through field recoveries, and through the stubborn patience of families who have waited decades for a name, a grave, or a certainty. The VFW was built in part by men who came home from foreign wars determined that those who did not would not be filed away. That work is unfinished, and unfinished work is our business.
The POW/MIA flag was created in 1971 for the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia. In 1990 Congress recognized it as a symbol of the nation’s commitment to recovering those still missing. It is flown on designated days, including National POW/MIA Recognition Day, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, and Veterans Day. For many Posts, including ours, it flies more often than the law requires. It should. A flag that only comes out once a year is easy to overlook. A flag that stays in sight keeps the promise visible.
On the 18th, fly the POW/MIA flag. If you have one, bring it to the Post. If a chair in your house still belongs to someone who never came back, you are among friends here. Post 8555 will keep that chair in our common memory. We do not need a parade to do it. We need to say their names, support the accounting mission, and refuse the easy habit of moving on. Talk with younger members and guests about why the black flag matters. Memory that is not passed on fades faster than we like to admit.
September 29 is also the birthday of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, founded in 1899 in Columbus, Ohio, by veterans of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine campaigns. One hundred twenty-seven years later the work is the same: look after those who served on foreign soil, and do not forget those who never came home.