City to Fly POW/MIA Flag

Communications Director

Kristin Farley
[email protected]
(865) 215-2589

400 Main St., Room 691
Knoxville, TN 37902

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News item

City to Fly POW/MIA Flag

Posted: 09/08/2017

POW MIA FlagThe Prisoners of War (POW)/Missing in Action (MIA) flag will fly beneath the American flag at City facilities beginning Monday, Sept. 11, and lasting through National POW/MIA Recognition Day, held on Sept. 15, 2017.

The National Defense Authorization Act of 1998 specified the following days that the POW/MIA flag is displayed:

• Armed Forces Day
• Memorial Day
• Flag Day
• Independence Day
• National POW/MIA Recognition Day
• Veterans Day

The flag is generally flown the week leading up to each of these days. For this year’s National POW/MIA Recognition Day, that week begins on Sept. 11.

“In order to fully appreciate the freedom we enjoy as U.S. citizens, we must always remember the price and sacrifice it cost,” said Mayor Madeline Rogero. “At the City of Knoxville, we stand with local governments across the nation in honoring those who have never made it home.”

The flag itself is black and white and features the silhouette of a man with a watch tower and barbed wire fence in the background. Wording on the flag includes “POW,” “MIA,” and “You are not forgotten.”

The U.S. Congress passed a resolution authorizing National POW/MIA Recognition Day, which was first observed in 1979. According to the Defense Department’s POW/MIA Office, 1,741 people were designated as missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War (as of April 2009). There have been 841 U.S. personnel accounted for since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.