Ceremonies commemorating the POW/MIA are held at the Pentagon and military bases worldwide. The POW/MIA Flag is flown at federal buildings, and many states fly the flag as well. In some areas, schools hold museum visits and other field trips so the upcoming generation does not forget the people for whom this day is named. POW/MIA recognition rides are commonplace now, with service members, veterans, and families joining in motorcycle rides across the country.

What became POW/MIA Recognition Day began with the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia. Founded in 1966, the organization was the first to lobby the U.S. government and the United Nations for the humane treatment of POWs and information on those declared MIA.

In 1972, the League adopted the POW/MIA flag, giving it an incredible visual that has appeared on nearly every national magazine and is recognized around the world. Seven years later, POW/MIA the first National POW/MIA Recognition Day was observed with an official ceremony in Washington, D.C.

In the forty-six years since 1979, the federal government has had several agencies dedicated to finding and identifying service member remains. On January 15, 2015, those were folded into one organization based out of the Pentagon. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency follows leads, performs searches, and identifies remains from every conflict since WWII in their laboratories and partnership with private organizations.

These teams work around the world, still searching for service member remains. Shortly before this article was written, the remains of U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Henry G. Gish were fully identified and his family informed. SSgt Gish, with ten of his brothers, was killed in Vietnam forty-seven years ago.

This month, find out what your community is doing and take some time to honor these men and women. Do something to follow what it says on the POW/MIA Flag, “You Are Not Forgotten”.

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Fortunately, a WWI veteran, Philip Johnston, had a solution. As a boy, he lived within the Navajo Nation with his missionary parents and became fluent in the language. After reading about efforts to create an unbreakable code, Johnston was convinced the solution was with the Navajo people.

The Marines agreed and established a training unit in San Diego. Twenty-nine Navajo men were the first volunteers and, with Johnston, quickly developed the code. They used a combination of their language and keyword substitutions that bedeviled the Japanese for the next three years. By the end of the war, about four hundred Navajos volunteered for this duty.

Beginning with the Battle of Guadalcanal in August of that year, the Navajo Code Talkers were a part of every significant encounter with the enemy, until the end of the war. Their success is legendary within the Marine Corps and an incredible source of pride for Navajo service members and veterans still today.

It would be twenty-three years after the end of the war before these men could even tell their story, however. Their existence and mission were not declassified until 1968. It would still take another fourteen years for Federal recognition to begin.

In 1982, President Reagan awarded a Certificate of Recognition to the Navajo Code Talkers and declared August 14^th to be ‘Navajo Code Talkers Day’. President Clinton, in 2000, went one step further and signed the law that awarded them the Congressional Gold Medal. The following year, President Bush presented the medals to the last four survivors in July 2001.

Today, eighty years after WWII ended, there are only two Code Talkers still with us. Thanks to the efforts of military and civilian historians and reporters at local and national levels, there are written, audio, and video interviews available with many of them before they passed. As we observe this day, take the time to find them and discover an amazing part of military history that was instrumental to defeating the Japanese and achieving victory in the Pacific Theater.

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Pearl Harbor, located near Honolulu, Hawaii, was home to a large naval base. It was thought that it was not an ideal location for attack, although there were some who remembered similar locations that had been previously attacked. The United States Navy had a large contingent of ships, planes, supplies, and military personnel in the area. 

Just before 8 am on the 7th of December, the Japanese unleashed their attack, using hundreds of planes to swarm and drop ordinance on the ships below. Through the attack, around 20 ships were damaged, and more than 300 aircraft were destroyed. Some of the battleships were damaged beyond repair. 

The ship that bore the brunt of the attack was the USS Arizona. While some of the men stationed aboard managed to get off, the ship was sunk after a bomb ripped through the ammunition magazine. After a terrific explosion, the ship sank, taking more than 1100 men who were trapped inside down with her. The USS Oklahoma also sank after being torpedoed, taking around 400 men with her to the bottom.

After the attack was over, more than 2,400 Americans were killed to include civilians, and more than 1,000 were wounded. Although there had been chatter on the impending attack, it was thought that the Japanese would attack another location. There were a few who felt that Pearl Harbor was the target, but they had calculated the dates wrong, leading many to believe that they were wrong. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, war was declared on Japan by the United States, effectively bringing us into the second World War. 

The Japanese had wanted to remove any threat that the United States Navy had, but they failed to do so in their attack on Pearl Harbor. There were oil depots, repair locations, shipyards, and the submarine docks were untouched. The United States Navy was able to rebound and rebuild quickly after the attack.

Today, if you visit Pearl Harbor, you can visit the memorial for the USS Arizona. It is a touching and sobering reminder, where oil still rests on the top of the water. There are other locations to visit as well, and one can find a lot of great information on the attack on Pearl Harbor. If you get the chance to visit, I urge you to do so. 

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.”

~President Franklin D. Roosevelt~

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In the 1800s, settlers were flooding into Mexico-controlled Texas. In 1835, as the war for independence in Texas began to ramp up, a group of defenders took refuge in the old mission in San Antonio. Sam Houston, the commanding general, determined that the old mission was not a defensible position and recommended that it be abandoned for a better location. The men inside the Alamo refused, holding their ground against the massive body of troops on their way from Mexico.

While the defenders held off the Mexican army, Sam Houston was busy raising support throughout Texas. Detachments were raised, but it was a race against time to see if anyone would be able to get to the old mission in time to help those who were defending it. Col. William B. Travis was in charge of the old mission, and with around 180-220 men inside, they were vastly outnumbered by the large army approaching under the command of General Santa Anna. 

Those defending the Alamo, including David Crockett and James Bowie, managed to hold off the Mexican army for 13 days. On 6 March 1836, the Mexican army breached the mission and killed everyone inside, minus a small number of women and children. Instead of burying the defenders, the Mexican army burned their bodies and their ashes buried in a grove of trees, of which the location today has been lost. 

Around 350 troops under the command of Col. James Fannin attempted to reach the defenders at the Alamo, but were unsuccessful. After their surrender to the Mexican troops, Col. Fannin and his men were executed by the Mexican army on 27 March 1836. 

The fall of the Alamo and the subsequent massacre of Col Fannin’s regiment sent shock waves throughout Texas. Afterward, at the Battle of San Jacinto, the cry “Remember the Alamo” was heard as the Texans went on to defeat Santa Anna’s army. The phrase was also used during the later Mexican-American war.

Today, the Alamo is open to visitors, sharing the story of the beginning of the war for independence in Texas.

 Books on the Alamo:

1. A Time To Stand – Walter Lord
2. The Gates of the Alamo – Stephen Harrigan
3. The Blood of Heroes: The 13-Day Struggle for the Alamo – James Donovan
4. David Crockett: The Lion of the West – Michael Wallis
5. A Line in the Sand: The Alamo in Blood and Memory – Randy W. Roberts
6. 13 Days To Glory – Lon Tinkle
7. Texan Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution, 1835-1836 – Stephen L. Hardin

Movies on the Alamo:

1. The Martyrs of the Alamo (1915 – silent film)
2. Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (1955)
3. The Last Command (1955)
4. The Alamo (1960) with John Wayne
5. The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory (1987)
6. The Alamo (2004)

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O say can you see by the dawn’s early light

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight

O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave

Before the song became the National Anthem, it had been one of the most popular songs in America. The music that the poem was set to, ironically, is from an English drinking song called “To Anacreon in Heaven.”  The tune was written around 1775 by John Stafford Smith and was an ode to the ancient Greek poet, Anacreon, who really loved wine. 

If you ever have a chance to visit Fort McHenry, I highly recommend it. There is so much history there, and you can walk through the fort, gaining a sense of what the soldiers there lived with on a daily basis. You can see the living quarters, the jail, some of the stores that were located within, and then look at the view across the Chesapeake Bay. 

The soldiers inside the fort managed to withstand around 25 hours of a constant barrage by the British ships in the Bay. When they hoisted the flag the next morning, the soldiers signaled their victory through the flag. The War of 1812 has been considered the second war of Independence in the United States. Before the cannonade, Washington D.C. had been invaded, and the White House burned to the ground, and other buildings in the area were set on fire as well.

Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer who had been working on securing the release of Dr. William Beanes, a civilian doctor who had been captured, for the week before the shelling began. Because they knew the British plans, and as part of the release terms, neither could return to land prior to the firing on Fort McHenry. 

There are four verses to the Star-Spangled Banner poem, but only one is truly known to this day, and that is the one that composes our national anthem today. You can learn more about the history of the Star-Spangled Banner here: http://bit.ly/3ppaBF3.