Veterans of VFW Post 7507 raised the American and the POW/MIA flag in honor of all the Prisoners of War Missing in Action during a brief ceremony Friday, Sept. 18.

Doing the honors were two WW II Army veterans, Al Shattuck, a former Post Commander, and Jerry Clarelli, a Color Guard/Honor Guard member.

In 1979, the United States Congress passed a resolution authorizing National POW/MIA Recognition Day to be observed on July 18. In 1995 the event was moved to the third Friday of September.

As is traditional and authorized by Congress, President Obama was expected to declare Sept. 18 as POW/MIA Recognition Day.

The POW/MIA flag symbolizes the United States’ resolve to never forget POWs or those who served their country in conflicts and are still missing.

The flag’s design features a white disk bearing within a black silhouette of a man’s bust, a watch tower with a guard on patrol, and a strand of barbed wire.

White letters “POW” and “MIA”, with a white five-pointed star in between, are typed above the disk. Below the disk is a black and white wreath above the motto “You Are Not Forgotten” written in white, capital letters.

There are 1,627 American personnel listed by the Defense Department’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency as missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War alone.

The number of United States personnel accounted for since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 is 841. About 90 percent of the people still missing were lost in Vietnam or areas of Laos and Cambodia under Vietnam’s wartime control.

Currently there is no POW or MIA from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

National POW/MIA Recognition Day is not a federal public holiday in the United States but it is a national observance.