FORT POLK, La. -- The Joint Readiness Training Center and Fort Polk will host a POW/MIA ceremony on Friday, Sept. 21, at 10 a.m. at Warrior Memorial Park.
Each year, the President issues a proclamation asking Americans to recognize the nation's service members who were held prisoner or are still missing, and their families. Traditionally, the recognition is held the third Friday in September.
As a result of resolutions passed in Congress, the first official commemoration of POW/MIAs was in 1979, when the first national ceremony was held.
The observance is one of six days of the year that Congress has mandated flying of the POW/MIA flag, created by the National League of Families, at major military installations, national cemeteries, all post offices, Veterans Affairs medical facilities, the World War II Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the offices of the secretaries of state, defense and veterans affairs, the director of the selective service system and the White House.
The Department of Defense has more than 600 people dedicated to the worldwide mission of accounting for the more than 83,000 missing service members from conflicts as far back as World War II.
