Campus events honor POW/MIA
By Carmen Castro
and Matt Potter
Staff Reporters

TCU will remember and honor prisoners of war and military personnel who are missing in action Friday for National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

TCU’s Air Force ROTC is in charge of this week’s events commemorating the prisoners of war and servicemen missing in action.

Air Force ROTC Cadet Megan Doiron said the ceremonies will include guest speaker Col. Robert B. Purcell, a showing of the film, “Return With Honor,” narrated by Tom Hanks and reading the names of POWs and MIAs.

Purcell is a retired Air Force fighter pilot who flew combat missions out of Thailand and South Vietnam. He was shot down July 27, 1965. He spent seven and a half years in Hanoi as a POW before returning home Feb. 12, 1973.

“It’s a way to honor those who served before us,” Doiron said. “It’s also a way to remember and celebrate what we’re fighting for.”

Col. Purcell will speak at 3:44 p.m. in Sid Richardson, Lecture Hall 1.

By law, the third Friday in September is dedicated to honor the men and women still held in enemy hands or buried on foreign soil, but ceremonies can be held throughout the week of Sept. 15 to 21, according to the POW Network’s Web site. The official black and white POW/MIA flag is flown recognizing the U.S. commitment to do anything possible to account for the servicemen missing in action.

The ceremonies will begin at the flagpole in front of Sadler Hall when Air Force ROTC will begin guarding the POW/MIA flag for 24 hours beginning at 4:30 p.m.

“Hopefully these ceremonies will make the campus more aware of soldiers who have fought for our country,” ROTC Air Force Ops/Group Commander Heather Estey said. “It will be especially meaningful because of what’s going on in Iraq and the fact that former ROTC TCU alumni have been sent to serve in Iraq.”