Beale honors POW/MIA Recognition Day Published Sept. 20, 2019 By Senior Airman Tristan D. Viglianco 9th Reconnaissance Wing Public Affairs BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The 9th Reconnaissance Wing held a variety of events on base, including a 24-hour vigil run and a remembrance ceremony the week leading up to the POW/MIA Recognition Day, Sept. 20. Throughout the week, the base held a reveille ceremony where the POW/MIA flag was raised, showed a collection of movies at the theater that showcased various conflicts, and held a vigil run spanning 24 hours. The vigil run honored the names of POW/MIAs as members of the Beale community carried the flag around the installation track. The concluded with the national POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony. “We had many events this week,” said Col. Shannon Juby, 9th Mission Support Group commander, “We had many opportunities to think about the folks who came before us, to think about the unaccounted for, and think about the sacrifices that were made for us to be here today.” POW/MIA Day is an annual observance held on the third Friday of September and is meant to recognize the nation’s prisoners of war and the service members who are still missing in action. Numerous former POWs and their families from various conflicts attended the ceremony as honored guests. “[These] guests are amazing Americans,” said Juby. “We have been talking a lot about resiliency lately and if one wants to know about resilience they need to talk to them. With what they went through, they are the definition of resiliency.” According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, more than 82,000 Americans remain missing from our nation’s wars.