KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — On the third Friday of September every year, veterans, citizens and officials gather at the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial at World’s Fair Park for the National POW MIA Recognition Day. This year was no different.
The event began at 10 a.m. and included taps, the placing of a wreath at the Vietnam veterans monument, and the setting of a POW MIA Table. While the event was attended by dozens of people, the event honored thousands who are missing in action or were prisoners of war.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency records that more than 80,000 of those who have served in or since World War II are still unaccounted for. In Tennessee, there are 1390 service members still unaccounted for, and nearly 1,200 served during WWII.
Navy sailor from Knoxville still unaccounted for 80 years after the end of WWII
“We still have over 1,500 from the Vietnam era that are still missing. We have 70-some thousand from World War II. We have many from Korea that are still missing. And we cannot forget our brothers and sisters that are still missing that serve with us in combat,” United Veterans Council President Dr. Pat Polis said…