Prisoners of War deserve our honor, respect on this day
COMMENTARY
Emily Baker

The year is 1967. The location: Vietnam. A 19-year-old American man hunkers down on a jungle floor covered with muck. Mammoth mosquitos plunge their needles into his brawny arms. A drop of sweat tumbles down his nose. Rockets scream overhead. His ears ring with the sound of automatic-weapon fire mixed with the painful screams of his wounded and dying comrades who lie in puddles of their own blood. His eyes frantically dart back and forth looking for any sign of the enemy. His heart rattles in his chest. He tries to moisten his sunburned lips, but his mouth is too dry.

Just then, the cold steel of an assault rifle barrel slams against his temple. An angry man barks instructions in an unfamiliar language. The American soldier reluctantly drops his weapon and raises his hands in a plea for the angry man to spare his life.

The soldier’s hands are squeezed into a vice of twine, and he is shoved along a trail to a torture camp where he will spend the next few months of his life. By day, he is kept in a cramped room, stale with the stench of animal droppings. By night, he is led blindfolded to an icy room where he is beaten until his bones break. He is given a small portion of rice to sustain him each day. His once-strong arms have withered to twigs.

He is a prisoner of war. This is his life until the day his captors decide he no longer serves a purpose. Instead of receiving his nightly beatings, he is shot point-blank in the back of the head. He is given no burial. He is tossed back into the jungle where he was captured. His body is pecked by animals. His cleaned bones are sold to tourists.

Sound far-fetched? The above is actually a true scenario. According to the United States Department of Defense, nearly 18,000 Americans have been taken as prisoners of war just since the Korean War. That is a population twice the size of TCU. All of this information became available recently as Department of Defense files were declassified due to ongoing Freedom of Information litigation sponsored by the POW Network, a group made up of POW family members.

While our elected officials fiddle around with finding a real solution to the POW crisis, we average citizens have been given the responsibility of honoring our nation’s POWs. Our job is to never forget, which can involve everything from daily remembrance of our POWs to adopting a POW. For more information about how to get involved in honoring POW/MIAs, please visit (www.powmiaff.org).

Today is National POW/MIA Recognition Day, a day designated specifically to remember the sacrifices of American POWs. There may be only one official day of recognition, but Americans have a daily duty to fight for the return of POWs. They are Americans just like us. Some were murdered; most were tortured. Some of the dead were buried; most were tossed out like filthy rubbish. They all deserve to come home. No one deserves to have their remains desecrated by animals — least of all our nation’s valiant defenders.
They fought for us, now we fight for them.

Emily Baker is a senior news-editorial journalism major from Midland.
She serves on the national press team of the POW/MIA Freedom Fighters Organization.