Courtesy of POW/MIA Accounting Community

There are more than two dozen designated military holidays and observances in the United States; however, three of them are federal holidays:

• Memorial Day, which honors those who have fallen;

• Armed Forces Day, which honors the nations’ actively serving military members and;

• Veterans Day, which honors all veterans who have served their country.

The first honors those who have died while serving the nation, while the second honors those currently serving in the military, and the third honors those who have served.

One federally recognized holiday that many will say is absent, is a holiday honoring those who remain missing in action, as well as those were prisoners of war.

While it is not a federally established holiday, National POW/MIA Recognition Day is observed on the third Friday of September, and has been for more than four decades.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency says that National POW/MIA Recognition Day was established in 1979 through a proclamation signed by President Jimmy Carter. Since then, each subsequent president has issued an annual proclamation commemorating the third Friday in September as National POW/MIA Recognition Day. It honors those who were prisoners of war and those who are still missing in action. It is most associated with those who were POWs during the Vietnam War.

A release from the Military Order of the Purple Heart announcing Sept. 20 as the recognition day in 2024 reports the numbers of unaccounted-military personnel are staggering, currently 72,000 missing, going back to World War II.

“Many will never be recovered because the loss occurred over deep water, were due to catastrophic explosions, or eyewitnesses to the incidents have long since passed,” states the Tuesday release, “but every new identification helps bring closure to one more American family and is one step closer to achieving the fullest possible accounting of our missing. It is also a re-commitment to those currently serving in uniform today that America will not rest until we bring you home.”

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) places the number much higher, stating that 88,000 Americans remain missing. The DPAA is an agency of the Defense Department tasked with accounting for all Americans who are missing as a result of past U.S. military conflicts (World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the first Gulf War). DPAA is manned by approximately 400 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Department of the Navy civilians.

Each year, DPAA teams travel throughout the world to locate and excavate sites where the remains of missing Americans are believed to be located, the agency says. These locations are usually ground burials or Aircraft crash sites. After remains are recovered, they are transported to DPAA’s Central Identification Laboratory (CIL), the largest forensic anthropology laboratory in the world. There, DPAA staff of forensic anthropologists attempt to identify all recovered remains. Once an American has been identified, their remains are returned to their family with full military honors.

Since 1999, the POW/MIA Accounting Community has created a poster commemorating National POW/MIA Recognition Day.