Recently, a family in Clarksville, Tennessee, was given news that they have been waiting for since 1964.  The remains of Staff Sergeant Lawrence Woods, a member of the 5th Special Forces Group who disappeared after his aircraft was shot down in Cambodia, have been identified, and I imagine that he will soon be given the burial that he richly deserves.

Currently, there are 83,343 people listed as Missing In Action.  They are soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines from World War II, Korea, The Cold War, Vietnam, and Iraq and the War on Terror.  There is one prisoner of war from Afghanistan that we still owe repatriation, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who has been in captivity since 2009.

These are the sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers who never came home, and their final resting place is not known to their families.  They are the men who are still owed their burial flag, folded into a tri-corner, and given to their family as a memorial to their service.  They are owed the plaintive sound of “Taps”, and the sound of three volleys of rifle fire ringing across the hills of Virgina, the mountains of Colorado, and the prairies of Kansas.

Today is National POW/MIA Recognition Day, and I hope you will join me in adding these men and their families into evening prayers.  The debt we owe these men is to never forget them, and to be there for those they left behind.

To SSG Woods and the other servicemembers whose remains have been found and are being identified, I offer welcome back to our homeland.  To SGT Bergdahl, I pray that you are delivered safely back to your loved ones and a country that cherishes you.  And to my brothers who are still out there beyond the light of our fires, remember that we honor you, we will never forget you, and we will never stop looking for you.