Candlelight vigil at Missouri’s National Veterans Memorial honors POWs from all wars

PERRYVILLE, Mo. (KFVS) - A candlelight vigil at Missouri’s National Veterans Memorial will honor and remember POWs from all wars.

The vigil will be from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, September 16 at the memorial in Perryville.

According to a release from the memorial, the third Friday in September is recognized as POW/MIA Recognition Day.

They said until 1979, there was no formal recognition day set aside for these men and women in uniform.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency official site says more than 81,000 service members are missing from conflicts from World War II to the present time. Of those, they said the majority (more than 72,000) are missing from WWII.

Copyright 2022 KFVS. All rights reserved.