By Mary Ellen Day, Special Writer
Members of Veterans of Foreign War Thomas J. Kavanaugh Post 2290 and its Ladies Auxiliary held the solemn POW MIA ceremony Friday night to remember those who are being held and still missing in action. This ceremony was performed on Friday all over the state.
”We the members of Thomas J. Kavanuagh Post 2290 Veterans of Foreign War of the Untied States are assembled here to remember our comrades who are being held prisoners of war and those missing in action,” said Commander Fred Gorbatuk. “We must not forget the sacrifices these comrades are still making and the suffering they are still enduring for us and our way of life. They must remain alive in our minds and hearts until we know they all have returned home to their loved ones or have been called to the bosom of our heavenly father. We must continue to give moral support to their families who continue to suffer with them.”
Red, white and blue carnations were placed by veterans on the table along with a wreath and another table set up with an empty chair and place setting, to symbolize those who are still missing.
After the ceremony, a few of the guests present spoke, including 16th District Assembly woman Donna Simon.
”For every prisoner of war and those missing in action, words cannot describe what they endured so we could remain safe and raise our families with peace in our homes in this great United States,” she said. “I can only imagine the hardship and agony that their family and friends and fellow service members endured each day that they waited for them to come home.”
Mayor Angelo Corradino said, “We hear numbers of POW MIAs but that is only a statistic. That still remains over 1,700 from the Vietnam era war and North Korea. That is only a statistic and the statistic is only numbers. Reality, statistics are somebody’s son or daughter, somebody’s brother, sister, a child, mother or father. We commemorate this event once a year. Just think of the agonies that these families have to go through every day.” State Ladies Auxiliary Department Jr. Vice President Barbara Taylor came to take part in the ceremony. Ms. Taylor read a poem entitled “Least We Forget.”
Art Taylor, the state senior vice commander, thanked the VFW for inviting him to the ceremony.
”Between 1991 and 1994 North Korea returned 208 boxes of remains of our servicemen. In those little boxes, not much bigger than a cardboard box, there were approximately 200 to 400 remains,” he said. “They’re still being sorted in Hawaii. That is where the lab is and that is where they match up the DNA and they have to find family members to do that.
”Still, there are over 7,800 Americans that are still missing from the Korean war. From WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam War, there are over 83,000 MIA POWs. The VFW will not rest until the last one is home,” he said. “We guarantee you that.”
”As long as there is a Veteran of Foreign Wars and the Ladies Auxiliary, caring and loving those who served American, we will keep POW MIA issues alive and in the public’s eye. It is our duty to see that the United States government keeps working on this issue until the matter of our MIA POWs are returned.”

