HICKAM AFB, HAWAII – The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command will commemorate National POW/MIA Recognition Day at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at 10 a.m. Sept. 19.

Each year, a Presidential Proclamation designates the third Friday in September as National POW/MIA Recognition Day. Highlights of this year's ceremony include a wreath laying ceremony, speeches by distinguished guests, and the playing of taps in recognition of prisoners of war and those still missing in action from previous wars.

The ceremony will be led by JPAC's Commander Rear Adm. Donna Crisp. Keynote speaker will be U.S. Navy Capt. (Ret) Jim Hickerson, a former Vietnam War POW.

The ceremony is free and open to the public. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the audience will be invited to tour the cemetery or lay wreaths at the monument.

JPAC's mission is to conduct operations in support of achieving the fullest possible accounting of Americans missing as a result of our Nation's past conflicts.

One American is still missing from the Gulf War, more than 1,750 from the Vietnam War, 120 from the Cold War, more than 8,100 from the Korean War, and more than 78,000 from World War II.