CRAIG PAYS TRIBUTE TO AMERICA'S POW/MIA'S<br><i>Chairman will be at the 19th Annual Idaho Veterans Olympics Saturday</br></i>
September 15, 2006
Media contact: Jeff Schrade (202)224-9093
(Washington, DC) U.S. Senator Larry Craig, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, returned to his home state on Friday to participate in the 19th Annual Idaho Veterans Olympics, which will be held on Saturday. After his plane landed, Craig issued the following statement about National POW/MIA Day.
"Those who serve in the U.S. military and in our intelligence agencies lay their lives on the line for all of us. There is no higher calling for any American. Most who go through combat survive that experience, while some lose their lives on the battlefield. Still others are captured, and many of them have been tortured and some have lost their lives. Others are never recovered, and families are left wondering and aching to know of their fate. We want all those who have been captured and those who are still missing loved ones, that this country never forgets," Craig said.
According to a recently released report by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, at the end of 2004 ? the most recent year for which numbers are available ? since World War I through the current war in Iraq:
- 142,246 Americans have been captured or interned
- 17,009 Americans have died while in captivity
- 32,550 were alive at the end of 2004
The tradition of honoring the nation's POW/MIA's began in 1979. The remembrance was held on different days until 1986 ? when the third Friday of September became the standardized date.
To honor the day, the famous POW/MIA flag was flown over the U.S. Capitol on Friday ? as well as at the White House, the Pentagon, U.S. military installations, and national cemeteries across our country.
On Aug. 10, 1990, Congress passed a law which recognized the National League of Families' POW/MIA flag and designated it as "the symbol of our nation's concern and commitment to resolving as fully as possible the fates of Americans still prisoner, missing and unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, thus ending the uncertainty for their families and the nation."
Editor's note
The 19th Annual Idaho Veterans Olympics event begins at 10 a.m., Saturday, September 16, at the VA grounds at 500 W. Fort Street in Boise. About 1,000 people usually attend the games. Sen. Craig is scheduled to speak around 10:15 a.m.
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