Pendleton hosts 20th annual POW/ MIA Memorial Service

More than 50 veterans, family members and military leaders gathered outside the Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton for the 20th annual Prisoner of War Missing in Action Remembrance Ceremony, Sept. 17.

The first national commemoration for POWs/MIAs was July 18, 1979. Since then, Congress has passed yearly resolutions for the tribute. But in 1996, a presidential proclamation designated the third Friday in September as National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

“It’s of the upmost importance that we remember those who never made it back home during the war,” said Dr. George Pappas, a special guest speaker at the ceremony and former POW during World War II. “Our prayers and ceremonies such as this one are the key to keeping their memories alive.”

There were several military service organizations represented at the memorial service that included Northern San Diego County Veterans of Foreign Wars Chapters, American Legion Posts, Military Order of the Purple Heart, and Jewish War Veterans, of which many of their members were prisoners of war in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

“Every year I make it out to be apart of the remembrance, and every year it gets harder and harder to fight back the tears,” said Larry Cilestio, a former POW who spent 3 years in Germany. “Being a prisoner of war is something I hope no service member should ever go through.”

Throughout the morning speakers, including Captain Jeff Plummer, executive officer, Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, gave compassionate words to the former MIA and POWs, and encouragement to the friends and family members of those who haven’t found their way home.

“While as a prisoner of war, I can confess that it was at times very difficult not to give up,” said Pappas. “The only thing that kept me going was knowing that somewhere my family and friends were depending on me to make it back home alive.”

To conclude the morning ceremony, banners were unveiled to reveal eight Navy corpsmen currently missing in action, most of who dates back to WWII, Vietnam and Korea.

“Over the years people tend to forget about those brave souls left behind the line,” said Barbara A. Brownell, who has attended the ceremony for over a decade in remembrance of her son who has been MIA for the past 20 years. “If there is one thing my son should know, wherever he may be, is that he is the first person I think about when I wake and the last thing I see before I go to sleep.”

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