Friday, September 16, 2022

Today Is 2022 National POW/MIA Recognition Day - POW/MIA Flag Flies Below US Flag Over Main Street Roosevelt Island Thru Efforts Of Local Resident West Point Grad & RIOC

The third Friday in September has been designated by Congress as National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

According to the US Defense Department: 

... More than 80,000 American service personnel are missing from previous conflicts and 38,000 are estimated to be recoverable. The Defense POW/MIA Agency remains relentless in its mission to provide the fullest possible accounting to their families and the nation, until they're home....

Today, Friday September 16, 2022, is National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

An excerpt from September 15, 2022 Proclamation by President Joe Biden:

 ... On National POW/MIA Recognition Day, we pledge to seek out answers for the families of service members still missing in action. We commit to doing all in our power to identify and recover America’s missing sons and daughters. And we pay tribute to former prisoners of war — individuals who exhibited remarkable courage, love of country, and devotion to duty to protect our Nation’s safety and freedoms.

Today and every day, we fly the iconic black and white flag symbolizing America’s Prisoners of War and Missing in Action above the White House, at the United States Capitol, on military bases, at memorials and cemeteries, and at homes across America. It is a reminder that we have not forgotten the heroism of our POWs and MIAs and that we still hope for their return. There is no undertaking more fundamental than the rite of remembrance, and there is no act more sacred or more American than keeping the faith with those who have sacrificed so much for our Nation....

The black and white POW/MIA Flag flies every day beneath the American Flag at the Roosevelt Island Blackwell Flagpole on Main Street. 

 How did the POW/MIA Flag get raised on Roosevelt Island? 

As previously reported:

... It was on the initiative of Roosevelt Island resident Ross Wollen in 2017 with the assistance of former Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) President Susan Rosenthal and Director of Transportation Cy Opperman. Mr. Wollen, a resident of Rivercross for almost 40 years, graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point NY in 1965.Over the years Mr. Wollen has hosted West Point Cadets and his Classmates on Roosevelt Island as they visit NYC for various events and reunions.

Among his frequent guests is Robert Jones, a West Point Classmate and good friend who joined the US Air Force as a Fighter Pilot upon graduation, and like almost all of the members of the 1965 Class spent time in the Viet Nam War several years after leaving the Academy. Mr. Jones was shot down over North Viet Nam close to his final mission, severely injured, captured and spent over five years in captivity, as a POW at various prison camps including the infamous Hanoi Hilton. There he was quartered, when not in solitary confinement or being privately tortured, with the Navy pilot, former Senator John McCain.

Mr. Wollen wished to recognize and honor the service of his friend and West Point classmate, Robert Jones. According to Mr. Wollen in 2017:

It was in connection with Bob Jones latest visit to Roosevelt Island that RIOC was kind enough to add the POW-MIA Flag to the Main Street Round-a-Bout, just under Old Glory, as it flies all over the Country.

Mr. Wollen often tells of Classmate Bob's then deadly serious but now delightful story of his interrogation by North Vietnamese captors. Jones was required at gun point to name his unit's several commanders and realizing he would be tested over and over so could not just make up names he couldn't remember, Jones volunteered the NY Yankee line up with which he was very familiar as a young New Jersey fan and having pitched against the Yankees when they played against Army at West Point in a pre-season exhibition game. Jones was challenged days later and specifically asked by a North Vietnamese interrogator the spelling of Jones' Flight Commander. Jones spelled out his Flight Commander - Yogi Berra. Yogi loved it when told the story in the 1990's.

Here's Mr.Wollen, Mr Jones and their West Point Classmate, US Marine Reg Dryzga

 Image Of Ross Wollen, Bob Jones & Reg Dryzga From Left To Right
at the Roosevelt Island Flagpole during a past visit.

The West Point Oral History Project has a fascinating interview with Mr. Jones
describing his experiences as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War and his internment as as a POW in North Vietnamese prison camps including the Hanoi Hilton.

Here's an excerpt from Bob Jones West Point Oral History describing being shot down:

...on the way down I'm  looking around, and I look out on the horizon, and I see this airplane. It's a MIG, and I see a plane through the MiG and he's turning in on me, and I'm looking and I said this guy's gonna come and shoot me right out of this parachute, and here he comes. And I don't know if it was the guy that shot us down or one of the other ones, but he's coming right at my parachute.

So I'm sitting there thinking, well, we carried side arms. I had a little 38 pistol, and I pull out my 38 pistol, and I'm  hanging in the parachute, and I'm like this. And I'm thinking if this SOB is gonna shoot me, I'm gonna get some shots off at least here. Well, this little peashooter I got is gonna go out about 50 feet and do this. This guy's got a 20- millimeter cannon in his airplane, so not much of a challenge here.

But I'm sitting here like this and I'm thinking, well, I got tracers in my gun because we put tracers in them because there's very few times that we thought that you're gonna have a gun battle out there with somebody, but you're gonna use this gun to signal. If you go in heavy trees or something, you can signal and the tracer will go through the trees and the rescue people can find you, so I knew I had tracers in this gun. I had five tracers in the gun, so I'm thinking, well, if I shoot first, he's  gonna see this so maybe he's not gonna shoot me. I don't know. So I stood there like this and I think I'm gonna let him fire first and I'm gonna unload this gun off, whatever. So he goes right over the top of me and he was just kind of thumbing his nose at me, or whatever, I don't know, but he went flying by....

I highly recommend reading the full transcript or watching the video interview...

Also, watch this fascinating video from the West Point Oral History of Mr Wollen describing his 1964 student interview with President Dwight Eisenhower among other highlights

By ROOSEVELT ISLANDER at 8:22:00 PM

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