Legion dedicates POW/MIA memorial
WEST WARWICK— William T. Hains won’t forget. He’s made it his responsibility not to.
Hains, a Navy veteran, took up the torch of soldiers captured in wars or missing in action. Now, as a member of American Legion Post 2, Two Legion Way, he has been part of the driving forces behind the newly installed memorial to veterans who have yet to come home.
“It’s a symbol of what can happen to all soldiers,” said Hains, 55, of Coventry. “If we have memorials for wars, that’s great. But what about the ones who didn’t come back?”
The memorial, a 3-foot-wide black granite block emblazoned with the POW/MIA flag, was added Saturday to the Legion’s Memorial Garden. It joins tribute statues and memorials to soldiers who fought in both World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam wars and Beirut conflict, as well as to women veterans.
The memorial recognizes a group of soldiers whose time is long overdue, said Mary McCabe, auxiliary president of American Legion Post 2.
“These are men that really have not been recognized in our park as of yet,” said McCabe. “They sacrificed a lot for our country and for a lot of them, unfortunately, people forget that they exist. We as a legion don’t forget and we want others to remember they’re out there and they need to be remembered.”
More than 200 people turned out for the dedication at the Legion on Veteran’s Day, McCabe said.
Veteran’s Day was originally called Armistice Day, in honor of the ceasefire on Nov. 11, 1918, which signaled the end of World War I. The day was made a national holiday in 1938, and in 1954, came to represent the day for honoring all American veterans, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Web site.
And in remembering veterans, those who have yet to come home from wars can not be forgotten, said Lois Lannon, state coordinator for the National League of POW/MIA Families.
“People just don’t know,” she said. “They still don’t seem to know there are so many missing from Vietnam, World War II, Korea. It’s important for people to remember their family member, but at the same time, make other people aware that others are missing and unaccounted for.”
According to the 2004 annual report of the U.S. Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, 89,081 soldiers are unaccounted for from conflicts as far back as World War II.
Lannon’s brother, Kenneth B. Goff Jr., is one of the 1,845 still missing from Vietnam. Goff, who would have been 63 this year, joined the Army after graduating from the University of Rhode Island in 1965. He had been deployed for 24 days when the helicopter he was in crashed in South Vietnam. Though he is presumed dead by the U.S. Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, for Lannon and her family, there is still no closure.
“The best thing that could have happened to end the years of uncertainty would have been to, at the beginning, say he was dead instead of alive or missing,” she said. “It would have been a much easier road than what we’ve gone through all of these years.”...............
WEST WARWICK— William T. Hains won’t forget. He’s made it his responsibility not to.
Hains, a Navy veteran, took up the torch of soldiers captured in wars or missing in action. Now, as a member of American Legion Post 2, Two Legion Way, he has been part of the driving forces behind the newly installed memorial to veterans who have yet to come home.
“It’s a symbol of what can happen to all soldiers,” said Hains, 55, of Coventry. “If we have memorials for wars, that’s great. But what about the ones who didn’t come back?”
The memorial, a 3-foot-wide black granite block emblazoned with the POW/MIA flag, was added Saturday to the Legion’s Memorial Garden. It joins tribute statues and memorials to soldiers who fought in both World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam wars and Beirut conflict, as well as to women veterans.
The memorial recognizes a group of soldiers whose time is long overdue, said Mary McCabe, auxiliary president of American Legion Post 2.
“These are men that really have not been recognized in our park as of yet,” said McCabe. “They sacrificed a lot for our country and for a lot of them, unfortunately, people forget that they exist. We as a legion don’t forget and we want others to remember they’re out there and they need to be remembered.”
More than 200 people turned out for the dedication at the Legion on Veteran’s Day, McCabe said.
Veteran’s Day was originally called Armistice Day, in honor of the ceasefire on Nov. 11, 1918, which signaled the end of World War I. The day was made a national holiday in 1938, and in 1954, came to represent the day for honoring all American veterans, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Web site.
And in remembering veterans, those who have yet to come home from wars can not be forgotten, said Lois Lannon, state coordinator for the National League of POW/MIA Families.
“People just don’t know,” she said. “They still don’t seem to know there are so many missing from Vietnam, World War II, Korea. It’s important for people to remember their family member, but at the same time, make other people aware that others are missing and unaccounted for.”
According to the 2004 annual report of the U.S. Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, 89,081 soldiers are unaccounted for from conflicts as far back as World War II.
Lannon’s brother, Kenneth B. Goff Jr., is one of the 1,845 still missing from Vietnam. Goff, who would have been 63 this year, joined the Army after graduating from the University of Rhode Island in 1965. He had been deployed for 24 days when the helicopter he was in crashed in South Vietnam. Though he is presumed dead by the U.S. Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, for Lannon and her family, there is still no closure.
“The best thing that could have happened to end the years of uncertainty would have been to, at the beginning, say he was dead instead of alive or missing,” she said. “It would have been a much easier road than what we’ve gone through all of these years.”...............
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