Family, Friends Recall Nation’s POWs, MIAs

They stood at attention, arms cocked in salute, minds cast back to battles fought 20, 40, even 50 years ago.

And as the flag-bearer filed past, they thought of their comrades who did not return.

“I had a lot of friends in World War II who never came back. And you always wonder what happened to them, even now,” said 73-year-old Les McCauley, a Santa Ana resident who served with the Navy in the South Pacific.

McCauley was one of 100 people who gathered in front of the Westminster Civic Center Saturday morning for a flag-raising ceremony in honor of the nation’s prisoners of war and those missing in action. The event, sponsored by the Huntington Beach-based Vietnam Veterans Reunited, also commemorated the 23rd anniversary of the Tet Offensive, in which more than 2,000 American soldiers were killed in Vietnam.

As local dignitaries, war veterans and their families stood by and silently watched, a black POW/MIA flag bearing the motto “You Are Not Forgotten” skimmed up the flagpole and flapped gently in the overcast sky.

“For many of us the war is not over. The scars still remain,” said Lou Hernandez, a Vietnam veteran from West Covina. “A lot of us are older now, but our hearts still hurt and our souls still wander. And when war broke out (in the Persian Gulf), a lot of those scars were opened again.”

During the ceremony--held Saturday because February is National POW/MIA Recognition Month--several people openly wept as speakers recounted stories of brothers and fathers killed in action or still listed as missing.

“I don’t have a gravestone to mourn over. I don’t have anything,” said 30-year-old Arlene Grahn of Huntington Beach, her voice breaking with emotion as she described a visit last year to Arlington National Cemetery, where her father’s name is inscribed. “I just have the Vietnam wall.”

Frances Schuster of Orange was also overcome with emotion as she read out the names of 64 Orange County and Los Angeles County soldiers who died in the Tet offensive. After each name, members of the crowd released a white balloon into the sky.

“I feel very strongly about the boys in Vietnam, and now the (POWs) who are in Iraq,” said Schuster, 49, whose husband served in Vietnam and whose son-in-law is a Marine in Saudi Arabia. “God forbid that we should ever let it happen again, that we should thumb our noses at them when they come back.”

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach) told the crowd that a visit last month to Vietnam and Laos convinced him that the two countries still held American prisoners of war.

“I can tell you unequivocally today that I believe there are still some men being held in Southeast Asia,” he said. “And it’s basically cowardice on the part of our government officials in the last 20 years that we haven’t made it the priority we’d like it to be. . . . If those guys are going to give their lives, then we, at the very least, can remember them.”

Although Rohrabacher’s speech was greeted with warm applause, one Vietnam veteran expressed some skepticism.

“I get upset when politicians speak,” said Jim Hasskamp, 42, of Orange. “It’s like surprise, surprise, now he thinks there are POWs over there. Well, that’s what we’ve been telling them for 20 years now.”