Pittsfield veterans remember missing comrades on Friday at South Street Memorial Park.
Post 1236 Cmdr. Brian Sedgewick displays a photo of Lt. Col. John Francis Overlock of Stephentown, N.Y., an Air Force pilot who has been MIA since 1968.
Mayor Peter Marchetti says more attention needs to be paid to events like National POW/MIA Recognition Day, noting there are still families waiting for their servicemembers to come home.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Around 20 people gathered at the South Street Memorial Park on Friday morning to mark National POW/MIA Recognition Day.
Ceremonies like these are held to keep memories alive of prisoners of war and servicemembers missing in action while pledging not to cease efforts to bring them home.
"By doing this, we are observing all of the POW/MIA's from different wars so that they will never be forgotten," American Legion Post 68 Cmdr. Woody Vaspra said.
Mayor Peter Marchetti said we need to do a better job of teaching patriotism and getting folks to attend these events.
"I think these are one of the more important events that happen in the city," he said. "And we know that there are people that we are still waiting to return home and families that are struggling, too."
Later on Friday, Marine Pvt. First Class Erwin S. King returned to his hometown of Clarksburg after his remains were identified eight decades after being killed in action during the Battle of Guadalcanal in World War II.
The 18-year-old had enlisted only six weeks after Pearl Harbor and never returned home.
Congress and the president solidified the recognition day in 1979 after a drive for more accountability from families of more than 2,500 Vietnam War POWs and MIAs. There have been more than 138,000 since World War I.
The Charles Persip American Legion Post 68 held the inaugural ceremony last year. Army veteran Henry "Hank" Morris had attended a fellow Vietnam veteran's funeral in Albuquerque, N.M., the prior year and was inspired to start the tradition.
Vaspra explained that the day is very important to him.
"I had a friend that was shot down in 1965 and came back in 1973," he said. "And when I went to visit with him, all we could do was sit across from each other and cry because there are no words to describe what they went through."
In May of 1972 while in the Air Force, Vaspra received the news that his roommate was shot down in Vietnam and listed as missing in action.
"I told the Air Force, 'if you find him alive, call me.' The call never came," he said. "It took 26 years for me to finally go to the Vietnam Wall to take care of that business."
He explained that these experiences are always hard because these soldiers are friends, brothers, and sisters.
American Legion Post 1236 Cmdr. Brian Sedgewick displayed a photo of Lt. Col. John Francis Overlock, an Air Force pilot who has been MIA since 1968. The Stephentown, N.Y., native took off from Phu Cat Airbase in South Vietnam and was not seen again.
Overlock is memorialized in the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii and his name is inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.
"There is a Marine coming home today who, after so many years, our country does a good job of still looking and looking and searching and expending every bit of material effort possible to bring home remains to their loved ones 82 years later," Sedgewick said.
"My hope is someday, and so many of us others, is that John Overlock's remains are found some time and we'll just keep looking for that and hoping for that day to come."
Chaplain of the American Legion Post 68 Richard Kurek read the invocation and benediction.
Included in the ceremony was a POW/MIA table of remembrance that is set for one symbolizing the fact that members of the country's armed forces are missing from the ranks.
It reads:
"The table is small symbolizing the frailty of one prisoner alone against his or her suppressors. The tablecloth is white, symbolic of the purity of their intention to respond to their country's call to arms. The single rose in a vase signifies the blood they were willing to shed and sacrifice to ensure the freedom of our beloved United States of America. The rose also reminds us of the families and friends of our missing comrades who keep the faith while awaiting their return. The yellow ribbon on the vase represents the ribbons worn on lapels of thousands with demand with the unyielding determination of proper account for their comrades that are not among us. A slice of lemon on the plate represents the bitter fate,"
"The salt sprinkled on a plate reminds us of the countless volunteers, the families, as they wait. The glass is inverted they cannot toast with us at that time. The chair is empty. They are not here. The candle is reminiscent of the Light of Hope, which lives in our hearts to eliminate their way home from their captors to the open arms of a grateful nation. The American flag reminds us that many of them may never return and paid the supreme sacrifice to ensure our freedom."
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