Vietnam Burn Pit Information

In the United States, National POW/MIA Recognition Day is observed on the third Friday in September. It honors those who were Prisoners of war (POWs) and those who are still missing in action (MIA). It is most associated with those who were POWs during the Vietnam War.  Day National Vietnam War Day is March 29, the date in 1973 when the last US combat troops departed the Repudlic of Vietnam National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day is different and separate from National POW/MIA Recognition Day. National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day is April 9. It was officially designated by Congress in 1988, Public Law 100-269 [Sen J Res 253 100th Congress]. as a Presidentially proclaimed observance. National Former POW Recognition Day commemorates the April 9, 1942, surrender of approximately 10,000 United States military personnel and 65,000 Filipino soldiers on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines by Major General Edward P. King to the invading Imperial Japanese Army headed by General Masaharu Homma. Bataan, thereafter, is distinguished as the largest mass surrender in United States military history. The surrender was followed immediately by the infamous Bataan Death March. By law, the President of the United States must issue annually a proclamation. YOU ARE NOT FORGITTON ! 

UPDATE - Henry Gerald (Jerry) Gish, U.S. Air Force, after 57 years SSGT Gish’s remains have been recovered and identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) in Hawalli and are being returned home for final rest on 18 September 2025. On 11 March 1968 while assigned to the USAF Det. 1 1043 Radar Evaluation Squadron performing duties at Lima Site 85, a secret tactical Air Navigation radar site atop the Phou Pha Thi Mountain in Laos’ Houaphanh Province, the site was attached and overrun by North Vietnamese Commando. Gish along with 10 other Airman were unaccounted for and listed a Missing in Action (MIA). Little history. 

Please Note the picture with all the SC MIAs are honored on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, their remains have not been recovered.