McCain Statement on National Prisoner of War / Missing in Action Remembrance Day
September 17, 1999
STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOHN McCAIN on NATIONAL PRISONER-OF-WAR/MISSING-IN-ACTION REMEMBRANCE DAY
On this, the occasion of National Prisoner-of-War/Missing-in- Action Remembrance Day, it is appropriate to reflect not only on the fate of those Americans who answered their nation's call to duty never to return, but on those who wear their nation's uniform today and will wear it in the future.
Our national cemeteries and memorials are fitting tributes to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in defense of liberty. But those who wear the pin and raise the flag and who remember this day in honor of America's missing-in-action pay the greatest tribute to the thousands from World War II, Korea and Southeast Asia still unaccounted for. We, as a nation and as individuals, owe it to them to never forget.
As American military personnel begin yet another deployment, this time into East Timor, while hundreds of thousands continue to guard freedom's frontiers around the globe, I cannot emphasize strongly enough the importance of National POW/MIA Remembrance Day. Full accounting of our missing servicemen and women must remain our highest priority, and I join with all those who honor today their memory and renew our collective pledge to never stop working to bring them home.
###
