[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 131 (Monday, September 19, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
        NATIONAL POW/MIA RECOGNITION DAY--A DAY FOR REMEMBRANCE

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, last Friday, September 16, 1994 was 
Prisoner of War/Missing in Action [POW/MIA] Recognition Day. I regret 
that the Senate was not in session on this day so that we could have 
paused to remember those Americans who have been or are prisoners of 
war or missing in action. We should acknowledge the great debt we owe 
to the men and women throughout our history who have answered the call 
of their country and served with honor and valor in or with our Armed 
Forces during peacetime and time of conflict. Some who have served 
became prisoners of war where they suffered cruel deprivation and, all 
too often, torture and brutality at the hands of their captors. Others 
became missing in action, with families left not knowing for far too 
long what has become of their loved ones. Today, there are still too 
many families suffering from a lack of finality; they have been 
condemned to live in a world of uncertainty and doubt without their 
loved ones. There are nearly 90,000 Americans who remain unaccounted 
for today from World War II, Korea, and Southeast Asia. To forget the 
sacrifice of these Americans and the never-ending efforts of their 
families would be to dishonor all of them and ourselves. We must not 
forget.
  We owe it to those who are still missing, their families and friends, 
and their comrades in arms, as well as to those who in future service 
to our country might risk similar fates, to do all that we can to 
achieve the fullest possible accounting for the POW's and MIA from all 
our wars.
  I ask my colleagues in the Senate and all Americans to consider the 
blessings we have as Americans. But more importantly, we must never 
forget the price which has been paid by a special group of our citizens 
to attain and protect these blessings.

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