Veterans, local residents hold POW/MIA memorial

Oct. 23--BLUEFIELD, Va. -- Veterans and residents gathered to remember the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action lives lost and still missing, on Tuesday.

"We're here to honor all that have served in the past, honor those in the present, and those in the future," Curtis Gillespie, of the Bluefield Virginia Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9696, said.

At the memorial a POW/MIA traveling monument allowed guests to honor the military men and women who have sacrificed all for their country. From the World Wars to modernity all service members were greatly honored.

Gillespie, who served in the Korean War, said, "We live in the best country on Earth I was honored to serve my country."

With pride for America and humbleness, veterans of the community expressed the high importance of honoring our nation's veterans. Whether drafted or voluntarily enlisted, Gillespie described the difficulties that those who serve face.

"All wars are evil. Everyone loses," Gillespie said, "I'm still thankful for the freedom that we have in the United States."

With death tolls of United States citizens for World War II estimated at 291,557, according to the website Business Insider, Gillespie and his fellow veterans mourn at the tolls of war. While wars result in the loss of many lives it does ensure that Americans have the utmost freedom possible.

"The only thing that comes good of wars is freedom," Larry Wilson, of the Pocahontas, Va.American Legion Post 14, said, "Without it, we'd have nothing."

Looking back on history, the veterans explained that not only have wars sealed American's freedom but it's also ensured freedom for those without a voice. During the second world war, thousands of Jewish people, and other oppressed were liberated from concentration camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau, and more.

In these camps men, women, and children, were tortured, starved, and left to die in squalor conditions. By the hands of the Nazi's 6 million Jewish people were murdered, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.

During the liberations, American soldiers were exposed to horrific sights. With many of them still being teenagers who were drafted into service, the sights and memories of these concentration camp liberations were, and still are, terrifying.

"I went to Germany at 17 years old. I saw things at 17 that grown people shouldn't see," Arnold Yost, of the Bluefield, Va.VFW Post 9696, said.

During his service in Germany Yost encountered 1,800 Jewish people who had been liberated but still hadn't found homes. His memories of their suffering and the terror of Dachau will haunt him forever.

"You could still count every bone in their bodies," Yost said, "We liberated them from the Nazi's."

According to Yost members of the 9696th VFW Post honor POW/MIA servicemen and women every day. To ensure that these lives are not forgotten and that the families are consoled, members of the post pray for the missing every day.

"This is a great honor for the town of Bluefield Va. to honor prisoners of war," Yost said, "We pray for them every day and honor them each and every day."

According to the POW/MIA National League of Families website, there are 1,594 service members still listed as missing in action.

-- Contact Emily D. Coppola at ecoppola@bdtonline.com

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