POW/MIA Day: Remembering those who are not home

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Matthew Bates
  • Air Force News Agency
SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) --  Retired Lt. Col. John Yuill looks forward to National Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Recognition Day every year. Not because he longs to relive his time in a Vietnamese prison camp, but because he understands how important it is to remember those who have still not made it home.

"I love this country," he said. "A country that has a day set aside to recognize POWs and MIAs is my kind of country."

As a former prisoner of war, Colonel Yuill has a different appreciation for this day than most. He and the rest of his crew were captured after their B-52 Stratofortress was shot down during a bombing raid over Hanoi Dec. 22, 1972.

Colonel Yuill spent nearly four months in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" before being released in the spring of 1973. It is a time the colonel calls the hardest of his life.

"Still, compared to the real heroes -- those men who served six and seven years as POWs -- my time was a relative cake-walk," he said.

The colonel, along with his wife, Rose, has honored this special day every year since 1991 by visiting Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, to be part of the base's recognition ceremony.

This year, the day was made more special when the base invited him to be the event's guest speaker.

During his speech, the colonel repeatedly stated how important it is that our nation not only honors its former POWs, but that it remembers those who are currently still POWs or MIAs.

"We must never forget them and pray for their safe return home," Colonel Yuill said.

Finding those Airmen who are POWs or MIA is the job of the Air Force POW/Missing Personnel Office at Randolph AFB. The office currently tracks the cases of 1,550 Airmen who are still considered unaccounted for. Of those, 581 are from the Vietnam War, 911 are from the Korean War, 57 are from the Cold War and one is from the Libyan raid.

The office also corresponds with nearly 3,000 family members, keeping them abreast of any activity regarding their cases.

The goal of the organization is to bring everyone home.

"We literally look forward to the day when we no longer have a job," said Jim Russell, the chief of the missing persons branch of the Air Force Personnel Center.

This realization is getting closer by the day. Since 2000, the office has resolved 98 cases involving unaccounted for Airmen, including 13 already this year.

However, until they are all home, and even after, National POW/MIA Recognition Day remains an important one. To honor those lost, to remember those still missing and to pay tribute to some truly great Americans.

But, as Colonel Yuill is quick to point out, they should not be recognized on this one day alone.

"Every day is POW/MIA day," he said.

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