9.16.2022 - POW/MIA Remembrance Day - Fall River War Veterans' Council

welcome all of you for our pow mia day as we think and remember those prisoners of war and those who are missing in action and we think about the pain that their family must be in with that i call them to post the colors

huh

right thank you i call upon the four of a war council veterans chaplain ed bailey to deliver the opening prayer uncover please almighty father we ask your blessings today upon this wonderful day that you have given us and for the proceedings that we are about to take we ask your blessings upon each and every one that is here to support this day please do not ever forget our brothers and sisters who are

either prisoner of war or missing their notch thank you amen pledge of allegiance i'd like to call upon matt gazminski and lenny tavares to lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag

and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you you may all be seated i'd like to thank all of the commanders and their members who are here if you could stand all of the commanders and members of the commander's units

thank you thank you all very much the national anthem is going to be sung by ed bailey um there's a little change in our venue mr bailey please join me i'll stand

we're so gallons is

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i'd like to take a moment to uh introduce some of the elected officials that are here uh representative carol fayola representative paul schmidt our fire chief roger st martin the sheriff of bristol county sheriff tom hodgson and we also have emergency management deputy chief aggia and also deputy chief tim oliveira from emts thank you all for taking time to be here right now i'd call upon the mayor of the

great city of fall river mayor paul coogan to bring the greetings

first of all i want to thank the war council and of course the veterans office for putting for putting this splendid observation together today and of course i want to thank everyone for joining us for national p-o-w-m-i-a recognition day it is my honor to recognize the men and women who served and sacrificed to keep our country safe i would also like to acknowledge the families of our missing soldiers

we wait with you we still have over 83 000 missing from wars going back as far as world war ii these men and women were children parents spouses siblings and important members of our communities today we all come together to honor them and give them thanks for what they did for our nation and we also must take the time to acknowledge the sacrifice the soldiers and their families paid because as we know

the cost of freedom is felt by more than just the men and women in arms their loved ones experience a very unique type of grief that many of us will never know they struggle with unanswered questions every single day we remind them now that we stand with them so we should all remember the efforts of our american men and women who were missing in action or became prisoners of war because without them we

would not be here today god bless our fallen prisoners of war god bless our soldiers missing in action and god bless their families and god bless the united states of america thank you all very much now i'd like to introduce the veteran service officer of fall river michaela brito

good morning today i will be reading the presidential proclamation on national pow mia recognition day from the from bella woods to the battle of bulge korea to the vietnam to afghanistan to iraq and all around the world american patriots have dared all risked all and given all to defend our nation and protect our liberties now and always we honor their service valor and sacrifice we also continue the outright

the righteous work of bringing home our heroes who remain unaccounting for on national pow mia recognition day we pledge to seek out answers for the families of service members still missing in action we commit to doing all in our power to identify and recover america's missing sons and daughters we pay tribute to the former prisoners of wars individuals who exhibition remarkable courage

love for country and devotion to duty to protect our nation's safety and freedom today and every day we fly the iconic black and white flag symbolizing america's prisoners of wars and missing in action above the white house at united states capitals on military bases and at memorials and cemeteries and at homes across the america it is a reminder that we have not forgotten the heroism of our pows and mrias

and that we still hope for their return there is no undertaking more fundamental than the right of remembrance and there is no action more sacred or more american than keeping the faith of those who have sacrificed so much for our nation on this day of heartache and of resolve let us offer strength to the families still waiting for the return of their loved ones let us extend our gratitude

to america and international partners working tirelessly to bring home our missing service members from their prior conflicts and let us remember that freedom is never free that democracy always requires champions and that we owe our eternal debt to heroes of our armed services now therefore i joseph r biden jr president of the united states of america by virtue of the authority vested in me

by the constitution and laws of the united states do hereby proclaim september 16 2022 as national pow mia recognition day along with my fellow americans i salute our former pows who overcame unspeakable actions to return home with honor we will work tirelessly to provide the families of those who have not come home the fullest possible measures of accounting i urge all americans to observe this day of honor and

remembrance with the pre appropriate ceremonies and activities in witness therefore too i have hereby set my hands on this the 15th day of september in the year of our lord 2022 and of the independence of the united states of america the 247th signed by joseph r biden jr thank you the war veterans council commander bob gunan unfortunately couldn't be here with us today due to illness and has asked

bill damaris from the war council to provide his words bills

the words i am delivering come from commander robert guinin this prison of war and missing an action ceremony is important to all of us civilians and veterans because it is our opportunity to reaffirm to the world that as americans we will never forget our prisons of war or our missing in action it also sends a message to the families of our pows and mias as well as to the families of those killed in action

joanne mello who's here one of those gold star families there is no ceremony or words that will ever relieve these families of their loss and pain or the guilt some of us as vietnam veterans and world war ii veterans feel because we made it home alive this ceremony here in government center renews our pledge and our promise to always remember and never forget our comrades and arms who did not return home with us

as veterans we promise to honor and keep alive the memory of our pows and mis and the sacrifice of their families and we ask you to join us in this mission thank you

we do have a veterans advisory board in the city of fall river and we do have veteran liaisons on the council myself and my colleague laura jean ferreira washington is also a member so i'd like to call her up for a few words from

good morning to our distinguished guest our veterans and their families and the citizens that are here today it is my absolute honor and privilege to be here in the asylum ceremony we are gathered here this morning to pay tribute to the more than 82 000 american heroes that are still unaccounted for and the prisoners of war that serve this country we will never forget you we gather to show

today in the city of fall river that we will never forget you it is our hope that your stories and your memories will be carried on through generations regeneration with your families to serve our country is an honor to die in the service of our country is the ultimate sacrifice of heroism and to the almost and more than 82 000 american heroes who never came back home we must never forget you

to the families of the missing heroes i tell you this they say god gives us memories so we will have roses in december it is my wish for you and the families that your family's stories will bring you roses every day may god bless our veterans and may god bless the united states of america thank you as we look at the empty chair here which signifies the people who are prisoners of war or those who are

missing in action laura and i will present the wreath um in front of the chair underneath the virus as well detail check check freezer

thank you

you may all be seated i'd like to introduce to you michelle hamilton who's the president of rolling thunder massachusetts chapter two to speak of rolling thunder's mission and to make sure that we as americans never forget our brothers and sisters in arms who served in all wars but are still unaccounted for michelle

good morning everyone and thank you for having us here today the mission of rolling thunder is to make sure that every single member is brought home to make sure that every prisoner of war and their families are recognized for us it is an honor and a duty rolling thunder often people misunderstand who we are and what we do they think we're a motorcycle club we are a group of veterans and non-veterans

young people and older people who take on the mission of rolling thunder that there be a full accounting to every family for their military members so for us it's more than a motorcycle club right half of us ride half of us don't ride half of us are veterans half of us are not we have junior members because we hope that they will instill get the same emotional feelings that we have about america as a country

so for us it's about the mission and significant to me a couple of years ago somebody said during a speech my friend ryan said during a speech that the united states is the only country that seeks a full accounting for our prisoners of war and are missing in action if that doesn't bring it home we are the only country that seeks that accounting on a local level this chapter does a lot

in the city of fall river on a national level we advocate for veterans we advocate for prisoners of war this chapter was instrumental in getting the pow flag to fly with the american flag every day rather than eight times a year i don't know how many people really realized that at our national um buildings that the pow flag was only flown eight times a year 33 years rowling's under fought to have

that flag displayed every day and by working with the senators in this state and the representatives in this state this chapter was able to work on bipartisan to get that done so anytime i see that flag flying on every day it's significant to me and it shows that the average person can make a difference so to the rolling thunder members who are here today i appreciate everything that

you guys do and what you represent the civilian members they've taken on our cause and they've never had that military training to me that's significant so they give they do and as a rolling thunder member i'm just so proud to be able to be here today with all of you and i want to say thank you very much so today as our speaker we have with us richard fitz jr he's the son of sergeant

richard fitz who was in special forces green beret um he is listed missing in action until recently but richard will speak to you on the issues of being a family member of someone who's missing an action and why we should never ever give up hope richard thank you so much hello nice to see you all first of all thank you very much for having me here um i wrote an article that was published a

couple years back and i thought this was probably the most appropriate way to put this and i did not have time to edit it so i will try to get through this as quick as i can so please bear with me uh let's first define the term gold star i'm a gold star son this is when you have an immediate family member on active duty that is killed well serving during conflict

when you are a parent or a person of soldier killed of course that can bring back uh bring up a lot of different emotions but the ones coming from a son or daughter that were too young to ever bond with that parent well i can speak from experience those are emotional issues i don't wish upon anyone i don't consider myself having it hard i consider myself fairly lucky in most

ways and i do my best not to complain i would hazard a guess that most people would be very taken back to know what i have endured there's a lot of truth in the phrase you'll be surprised what you can get used to but those details will be for another time suffice it to say the events that i went through for many years in many different forms are not very positive i found

myself asking very burning questions in my early years is my father still alive will my father ever come home in these much older years now it's phrased as would i be in a better place today if my father actually made it home i deal with it all the best i know how truth be told it didn't leave me with a lot of coping skills but i never took the bitter road the one thing that gets

me through is honor i accept the situation knowing my father sacrificed all for the greater good for all of us we the people america for our freedom i guess in some ways i sacrifice for it as well that is something i feel a good fifty percent of america has forgotten as of late i once was told i was a member of a club that no one wants to be a part of

this gold star club has had many members throughout the century and with this membership will pose many questions there's the physical side the how the when the where and of course the emotional side from the inner self the questions you can't put into words although i certainly do not belittle the situation for any gold star family i would assume the majority have a better network of people involved fellow

soldiers uh folks in the know family members a support network etc so the physical answers take care of themselves and the tougher emotional ones well they will always take longer but eventually most will at least lessen most will have their loved one's body or remains come home although tragic can be a blessing it gives you a place to start the grieving process it's all about closure the quicker it happens the

faster the healing but what if you had none of that no body no remains no proof no answers no support network well then those questions become impossible to answer and the younger you are when this occurs the more difficult the inner emotional questions become and i was received my membership at a very young age even though this aforementioned club is a vast good bad or indifferent it would

take me over three decades to realize just how different my situation was and how elite this club would be for me all i had left was a pre-sterilized military duffel bag of which every item would be a mystery to me jump boots fatigues few miscellaneous military items an old yellow t-shirt with strange legible words a vague cloudy memory of myself at a tender age of two years old being taken

off the kitty jump tower at fort bragg by whom i thought was my grandfather my father's father would be decades later that my mother told me that was actually my father i would rifle through all these small items and ask some questions that mom would try her best uh to answer but even she didn't have all the answers we have very few pictures of that time to this day i still stare at them trying

to see them from another angle see anything different anything new a glimpse into what my father looks like from a slightly different view or a different expression but it never changed we have a few letters home but it all seems surreal my own father was a fictional character of sorts yeah i knew my father was in the army i knew he was a green beret but he sure as hell had no

idea or didn't realize what that was he could have been a simple plumber and it wouldn't have mattered all we knew was his m.i.a status for a young boy it was very heavyweight to try to understand it all i was a bit detached at times or most likely i grew up too damn fast i can assure you that this situation is tough for anybody but let's add the fact that your parents

were just starting to build on a fledgling high school romance their time together would be fleeting in the grand scheme and may a mere four years give or take not a lot of history for this only son to learn from and given the political climate at the time the fact that your father volunteers for a very unpopular war or conflict polarized your situation from some poses my father then

goes on to volunteer for special forces training and earns the coveted green beret which is even more of a rarity for many sons and daughters he then volunteers for a top-secret unit known as the military assistance and control of vietnam studies and observations group mark v sag without us ever even know it now we are dealing with a fully deniable classified covert unit that at times

only had four to six hundred men running recon missions taking orders from the upper echelons of the pentagon or directly from the white house the true tip of the spear sworn to secrecy for over 20 years at this level of national security even family members would not be privy to any information there would be no one coming forward excuse me no one talking with us no military buddies no team members no help

guidance or advocacy simply put no answers if you add it all up the true rarity of my situation and just how small or elite this branch of my gold star club would become will start to sink in we would become stranded on a remote island of the unknown for decades i still had a void no answers the fact is i moved on and didn't push too hard hell i truly didn't know any better i

find myself jumping on any little piece of info or maybe a picture only to be let down there were some there were even some veterans that were quite misleading and i'm sure most were unintentional because no one knew the truth except the ones who were actually there all of them were sworn to secrecy so at every turn the truth fell short this pattern would become the norm and i'm

sure played a big role in why i moved on i would try to be a normal boy dabbled in martial arts baseball quick stint in the wee belows from late 1968 until i i was barely nine years old we had no answers it was late 74 when the government would acknowledge only a presumption of death and in 75 a funeral of sorts was to follow but still nobody no proof and no true answers not

to mention a constantly strained and unincluded relationship with my father's parents would continue to get worse within the same time period we had moved from our town of abington to pembroke my mother started a horse farm uh i would ride and show horses and soon before the two wheels of a dirt bike over the four legs of a horse um i still uh now my teens not this time

i was in my teens i would take up boxing discover a true passion of the rebellious rock and roll side of music and would start to be the proverbial proverbial rock guitar guard during these years i rarely addressed any of my father's fate with my friends or anyone for that matter most of these years i don't remember having any military types around us or anyone i could confide in other than mom

other than mom subconsciously i never paid much attention to those ever burning questions or better yet the unattainable answers this gap of silence would continue for almost another 15 years yes i would continue to live my life although when i look back at it it seems as though i would endure life and not truly live it then came that day of spring 89 out of the blue i would be blindsided by a simple phone call

at the other end i would hear four words that literally took me out at my knees we found your father whiskey tango foxtrot indeed approximately two to three weeks prior to this i had started showing mysterious neurological symptoms that would continue to worsen throughout the up and coming events and take uh to take place and i never fully recovered from it it would take a it would take a total of 21

years and 41 days from that fateful day november 1968 that my father's remains would be laid to rest on a brutally cold day january 13 1990 in abington massachusetts finally home imagine after years of not knowing who my father was or what truly happened this long-haired 80s rock and roll guitar player uh has an emotional abundance of overload meeting hundreds of people if not more literally tossed in the middle

of hype and media attention white house and political dignitaries pentagon officials surrounded by a sea of green berets quite an introduction to this elite world i'm sure i didn't make a very good impression on some or better yet myself it was estimated that five thousand to upwards of ten thousand people would come out during the five day event i stood up in front of thousands at 23

years old to bury my 22 year old father not more than a few months later the cold mingled remains found would be buried in arlington national cemetery in virginia for the other six green berets and the three south vietnamese aircrew killed with my father on that headstone the names of all including my father would be etched although technically still classified at the time i would be told some of the

details of that fateful day november 30 november 30th 1968 in laos where an impromptu volunteer team would attempt to insert elder sun which is the code name for the mission this was rigged ammo mortar rounds and how their chopper was shot down finally true information told to me by soldiers that were actually there i finally started to understand the true poignancy of it all in the years to follow more folks in the

know would reach out to me and after the official declassification of mcavisag and the presidential unit citation awarding in 2001 even more would come forward but i was still a bit numb it would take me what seemed like an emotional lifetime to absorb it all i had a lot of a lot of these pieces in front of me but still had not tried to assemble the big puzzle maybe i wasn't

ready or wasn't the right time maybe there was still more to learn however there was always this unseen guidance something pushing me almost like an underlying voice telling me go do it find out along with some very eerie undeniable coincidences that's for sure um so what finally pushed me it would be almost 22 years after the funeral in 1990 that my own son old enough to look me in the eyes and ask me

questions about my father that i could not answer maybe it was my father's way of kicking me in the ass from the other side or maybe i was finally ready to find out about myself either way that underlying voice was loud and clear from there i'd reach out and get more involved and uh meet these sog warriors people that serve with my dad uh and they held him at very high regard

i think at times they're very heavy on them emotionally as well as myself understandably some of our first meetings were filled with apprehension overwhelming feelings but also came with a genuine feeling of acceptance i wouldn't trade it for the world i got to meet my father through them and i could not be more grateful soon after i would find out much more than any family member or friend or local veteran

would ever know about my father unknown missions activities team members overlooked medals but more than that i would find another home i would go on to recruit a local producer to document it all in a film one of the more moving pieces in our film is an actual voice recording of my father reading a father's day letter that he sent home to his father my grandfather and it was actually uh awarding uh his

his green beret this actual green beret right here and uh to highlight a couple of uh fitting passages in that letter i don't know if i make the beret or the beret makes me and i gotta really repeat that i don't know if i make the brewery or the beret makes me and he ends the ends the lettuce uh by saying treat it like your own son dad because believe it or not debris you

hold in front of you is your own son ironic um my mother once told me at one point my father wanted to be a writer so yes there's more to tell another chapter to be pursued but until then for god and country and i thank you very much for the honor and allowing me to speak and i hope uh i hope my story touched some people

thank you

well thank you all you may be seated wow and think about it that's one person's story one person of what they've gone through think of all of the people that are out there that have gone through the same thing think of the people that were held prisoners in war in a cage like that

okay now that i've gotten my composure back a little after the ceremony dawn trahan and the chefs from the vet's kitchen will be serving lunch for everybody over there i would like to thank don madirus insurance gold medal bakery all their donations to make things possible forward is a city that really cares about veterans and when we ask people will come and they will help us out

the vietnam veteran of fall river for providing contra contributions and the logistics of organizing something like this so at this time i would like to have jerry bernier come up and jerry is going to sing for us god bless america

god

through bless night with the light from above from the mountains to the prairie to the oceans wiped

america

you can all have a seat our singer who usually sings for us was involved in a a situation where she finds herself at the er right now so we get people right away to stand in for one another jerry thank you so much for offering i said who can sing well jerry raised us in you're right we all work together in this community that's right we'll have a closing prayer um by father rob from blessed trinity

church who is always here to help us as well thank you father

on this p.o.w m.i.a remembrance day we pray almighty god author of peace whose boundless love reaches beyond our vision and who holds all your children and tender compassion and concern we pray for those men and women who have been taken captive in war give them the courage to persevere in the knowledge that they have not been forgotten give each missing soldier courage and the strength to endure

give them peace in knowing that you will never leave them lord we remember and pray for all of those missing in action to their families and loved ones give them the assurance that none are missing in your sight but held forever in the safety of your love we pray for the day when peace will prevail so no more loved ones will ever again be pows or listed as missing in action

we give you thanks for all here this day who remember the sacrifice of so many for our country for our freedom and for liberty and justice throughout the world we ask your blessing as well on those serving now and those who have served this we ask in the name of christ our lord amen father the son the holy spirit amen and god bless the united states of america thank you you may all be seated

i'll invite any gold star family members or individuals here who would like to be on the deck to release doves and i would call upon the four of a police department and the supporting honor guards to retire colors

we will not release these white ducks in memory of the powcfias and for those that were killed in action that we're aware of and uh please send on the wings of these dubs your prayers are a special message you may release the doves it does ah