Novi remembers service members who have yet to return

NOVI — Approximately 100 people took part in the 43rd annual ceremony held at the Oakland Hills Memorial Gardens memorial for service members who were prisoners of war or missing in action during National POW/MIA Recognition Day Sept. 16.

National POW/MIA Recognition Day is observed annually on the third Friday in September.

Event organizer Debbie Pineau McClain, president of the Prisoner of War Committee of Michigan, said she was very pleased with the turnout.

“It was good coming out of COVID. Last year, we had maybe 40, 50 people, and the year before, we just did it virtual,” she said.

The Rev. James Warunek, assistant state chaplain of the American Legion, said that according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency — the U.S. government agency tasked with the mission to provide the fullest possible accounting for missing personnel to their families and the nation — there are 82,500 service members who are unaccounted for from World War II to the present day.   

In Michigan, from the Vietnam War, there are 48 service members who remain unaccounted for and 36 who were unaccounted for and have since been found. Among those unaccounted for are Dennis Lee Gauthier, of Rochester, who has been missing since Halloween 1969; Gerald Allan Holman, of Northville, who has been missing since December 1966; Jeremy Michael Jarvis, of Warren, who has been missing since July 1967; Martin John Masucci, of Royal Oak, who has been missing since October 1965; Thomas Frederick Riggs, of Farmington, who has been missing since June 1967; and George Edward Tyler, who has been missing since October 1968.

Among those whose remains have been accounted for are Gary Russell LaBohn, of Wixom, who went missing in November 1968 and who was identified in February 1990; Roland Robert Pineau, of Berkley, who went missing in October 1967 and who was identified in June 2007; and Robert Allan Wilson, of Novi, who went missing in June 1972 and who was identified in October 1994.

On National POW/MIA Recognition Day, Americans are asked to reflect on the sacrifices of service members who are unaccounted for, as well as their families, who “have also been imprisoned in their hearts,” Warunek said.

“The focus for the evening was to reaffirm our commitment to the unreturned veterans of the Vietnam War and their families,” said Marty Eddy, Michigan Coordinator for the National League of POW/MIA Families.

Speakers at the event talked of the history of the POW/MIA flag and stressed the importance of making the public know that there are still soldiers who are unaccounted for. The ceremony offered prayer and reflection on the situation by a selection of people affiliated with the cause, and it included a wreath-lying ceremony and a 21-gunsalute by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Heart of the Lakes Post No. 1008 and the playing of taps by Robert Forester, who served in the U.S. Navy during Vietnam from 1964-1970.

Keynote speaker Joe Mishler, president of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 175 and Holly Area Veterans Resource Center, shared many powerful stories he has collected from interviewing former prisoners of war and family members of those who are missing, and he encouraged the public to help find the missing.

“Families and loved ones deserve our support. They deserve to know what happened to their family members, and we owe it to them and those who are still POW/MIAs to find them and bring them home. What might help is if we started telling their stories. If we started putting their stories out there. After all, as I always say, why should the public get a pass? You send us to war; you’re about as much responsible as anybody else,” said Mishler.

Duane O’Parka president of Rolling Thunder, Chapter 5, spoke of the various ways that his organization is striving to bring prisoners of war and those missing in action home. This includes flying the POW/MIA flag, speaking at various ceremonies and talking to students at local schools.

Eddy said people looking to help can get more information from the National League of POW/MIA Families at pow-miafamilies.org, from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency at www.dpaa.mil, and the Library of Congress at loc.gov/vets.