Gulf Coast POW/MIA Recognition Day

Freedom is not free, something family and friends of those who still have not returned home while serving their country know all too well.

Dozens of people gathered today at the Biloxi VA to honor and remember our POWS and those still missing in action.

A patriotic song, the wail of someone who knows first-hand the price some have paid for the freedoms we Americans enjoy today.  Retired Senior Chief Jim Layton said, “I’m thinking more about the MIA and their families. I think you saw here an emotional outburst and I’m thinking that’s because someone here has an MIA and that’s really traumatic for families.”

Retired Senior Chief Jim Layton was captured and held as a prisoner of war in North Korea for 11 months, but he considers himself fortunate he returned home. Others did not and have not. “It reminds us of the bitter fate of those who are still missing in a foreign land.”

It’s those who are remembered at the Biloxi VA. Retired LTC Louis Lartigue said, “POW/MIA Day is recognized all over the world and many of these service organizations all over the world are conducting the same ceremony with the Remembrance Table today.”

This is just one of the many remembrance ceremonies being held throughout the nation to remember the 1,595 servicemen and women still considered missing in action or prisoners of war. “It’s important because these folks who are no longer with us, considered POWs and MIA, sacrificed a lot for us.”