Author Topic: The Story Behind the POW/MIA Flag  (Read 553 times)

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rangerrebew

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The Story Behind the POW/MIA Flag
« on: September 02, 2021, 11:40:52 am »
 The Story Behind the POW/MIA Flag
by Brian Hudson 22 hours ago
 

Every war raises the possibility of prisoners and missing servicemembers. During the Vietnam War, the wives of some of those servicemembers decided something had to be done, and they banded together to make the U.S. government acknowledge these lost men. These women are the force behind the POW/MIA flag.

 
Origins

In 1966, a group of wives, whose husbands had been reported missing or taken prisoner in Vietnam, came together as what would become the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia. Sybil Stockdale, the wife of Navy A-4 pilot James Stockdale, wanted answers about her husband. Stockdale had been shot down over North Vietnam in September of 1965 and was held prisoner in the infamous Hanoi Hilton.

Sybil, along with a group of other wives, was disenchanted with the official U.S. narrative of not talking about POWs. The government consensus at the time was to not goad the captors into treating prisoners more harshly. The government feared the prisoners might receive even harsher treatment if images of and stories about them were made public.

https://sofrep.com/news/the-pow-mia-flag/