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Video by Sgt. ZaBarr Jones, Capt. Leonard Peralta

Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Hosts National POW/MIA Recognition Day Ceremony

94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command

Sept. 20, 2024 | 2:32

The National POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony was hosted by the Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific on Sept. 20, 2024. The ceremony is a tradition that allows local veterans organizations, community members, U.S. military personnel, and family members of missing personnel to recognize and honor those unaccounted for from past conflicts.
This year, the American Battle Monuments Commission held a rosette ceremony for over 940 U.S. service members who were declared missing during the Vietnam War and have since been recovered and accounted for. The bronze rosettes serve as a symbol of their recovery and identification.
Capt. Henry Etchberger, commander of the 10th Missile Defense Battery, had the honor of placing a bronze rosette beside the name of Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. Etchberger on the Courts of the Missing. Chief Master Sgt. Etchberger was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his courageous actions during the Vietnam War. Capt. Etchberger, a cousin of Chief Master Sgt. Etchberger, was chosen by his family to represent them at the ceremony. (U.S. Army video by Capt. Leonard Peralta and Sgt. ZaBarr Jones)