POW/MIA Recognition Day began with the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia. It was founded in 1966 to lobby the U.S. government and the United Nations for treatment of Prisoners of War in accordance with the Geneva Convention and information on servicemembers declared Missing in Action.
Before their efforts, families received little to no information about captured and missing relatives. Often, the U.S. government was not informed for months after servicemembers were captured and held as POWs. Official MIA declarations were ignored unless they could be used as propaganda or negotiation tools.
In 1970, Mrs. Michael Hoff, a League member and an MIA wife, determined that the organization needed a symbol to represent their cause. She contacted Norman Rivkees, Vice President of Annin and Company, to create a flag. Annin and Company had recently been in the news for providing flags to all member states of the United Nations. Rivkees and Newt Heisley, a contractor with Annin, designed the flag with its distinctive image and quote.
The League’s board of directors approved the flag in 1972, and it immediately went into production. To ensure the widest distribution possible to better advocate for imprisoned and missing family members, the League (with Annin and Company) sought no trademark or copyright. This remains in effect today. In 1979, the POW/MIA Flag flew over the first National POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Forty-seven years later, this is a day for us to remember those who suffered through captivity and those servicemembers whose fate remains unknown. We officially honor these veterans, still missing servicemembers, and their surviving families on the third Friday of September every year with ceremonies in nearly every major city in the U.S.
Nationwide, the POW/MIA Flag is flown at all federal buildings every September. Military installations worldwide and our ships at sea also hold ceremonies to honor POW/MIAs. Most state governments fly it at their facilities (some year-round), and many counties direct their school districts to fly it as well. Throughout the year, POW/MIA Motorcycle Recognition Rides, like this one recently held in Cripple Creek, Colorado, grow in number.
Find out now what your community has planned to honor our POW/MIAs. Take to heart the message, “You Are Not Forgotten.”
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