National POW/MIA Recognition Day, 2009

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Part II

The President

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Proclamation 8419--National POW/MIA Recognition Day, 2009

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 8419 of September 17, 2009

National POW/MIA Recognition Day, 2009

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Our Nation maintains a solemn commitment to leave no
service member behind. Our men and women in uniform
uphold this pledge every day, and our country further
upholds it as we honor every man and woman who serves,
particularly those taken as prisoners of war or missing
in action. We will never cease in our mission to bring
America's missing service members home; we will never
forget the sacrifices they made to keep this Nation
free; and we will forever honor their memory. On
National POW/MIA Recognition Day, we pay tribute to the
American men and women who have not returned from the
battlefield, and we express profound gratitude to those
who returned only after facing unimaginable hardship on
our behalf. Today, we also remember the families of our
prisoners of war and those missing in action and honor
the sacrifices they have made.

Every day, Americans are working around the world to
identify and recover the remains of our fallen heroes.
It is a promise made, and a promise that will be kept.
Although their location may be unknown, we will not
waver in our commitment to see they are reunited with
the land they so valiantly defended.

For those veterans who returned home after being
declared Missing in Action or having been imprisoned by
the enemy, we honor their service, their sacrifice, and
their courage. In distant lands, and under wretched and
torturous conditions, these men and women endured.
Faced with such tremendous adversity, they embody the
power of the human spirit--sustaining themselves with
hope and faith.

On September 18, 2009, the stark black and white banner
symbolizing America's Missing in Action and Prisoners
of War will be flown over the White House, the Capitol,
the Departments of State, Defense, and Veterans
Affairs, the Selective Service System Headquarters, the
World War II Memorial, the Korean War Veterans
Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, United States
post offices, national cemeteries, and other locations
across our country. It is a powerful reminder that our
Nation will never cease in our commitment to honor
those who have paid so high a price in its service.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim September 18, 2009,
as National POW/MIA Recognition Day, and I urge all
Americans to observe this day of honor and remembrance
with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
fourth.