Friday, Sept. 18, is National POW/MIA Recognition Day. In Warren County, a candlelight ceremony to honor prisoners of war and those lost and still missing in action is planned for 7 p.m. at the Tribute to Veterans Memorial in Warrenton.

Larry Schulze, an American Legion Post 180 member and the main organizer of the ceremony, said a highlight of this year’s event will be Makenna Heap singing the Star-Spangled Banner.

“This year we added a singer again,” he said. “It’s hard to find singers for the National Anthem.”

Father Eddie Godefroid will provide invocation and benediction prayers for the ceremony, according to a program for the event.

“The Marine Corps League’s going to do the Color Guard with the flags, and the Legion in Marthasville is going to do the Honor Guard with the rifle salute, and the VFW is going to present the wreaths, they’re going to hang them on the memorial,” said Rick Mantione, a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2180, among other veterans service organizations.

While the ceremony officially starts at 7 p.m., Mantione suggested arriving early around 6:30 p.m. 

Tino Patti, an AmVet Post 180 member, will again deliver opening and closing remarks, as he has done for the past several years. Patti said this year’s guest speaker is William Sifford, a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who is also a suicide prevention counselor and involved in other veterans organizations.

“He’s very active in service-connected issues,” Patti said.

Although the event is billed as a “candlelight” ceremony, the candles distributed will be LED lights. “We don’t want to have flames because of kids and all that stuff,” Patti said. 

The ceremony typically takes about 45 minutes, he added, so guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, particularly if they have any physical impairments that prevent them from standing for that period of time.

The first POW/MIA recognition day was held at the national level in 1979. The first Warren County ceremonies were more recent. Though they predate the Tribute to Veterans Memorial, they also have also not been held annually without interruption.

“The first POW/MIA Day ceremony here in Warren County that I know of was in about 2008 and it was held at American Legion Post 122, which was off Highway W at the time,” said Patti, adding that the ceremony was hosted by the American Legion Riders.

When Post 122 shut its doors, “there was a period of time we did not have one,” Patti said of the POW/MIA Day ceremony.

The annual event was revived, however, following the dedication and opening of the Tribute to Veterans Memorial, located at 431 W. Veterans Memorial Pkwy. in Warrenton, in 2018.

Mantione said there were multiple motivations behind the effort to build the Tribute to Veterans Memorial. One purpose it could be put to better use for, he said, is as an educational tool. There were also other reasons, however, for creating the memorial.

“Closure was a big thing,” he said. “I mean, sometimes you’ll go up there in the dark at night, with just the ambience of the lights that are on, and there will be somebody up there sitting by themselves, you know, trying to remember somebody or praying for somebody, or remembering the past, or whatever the case may be.”

Towards the end of the ceremony, Patti said, participants will take the LED candles and place them around the statues of the mother and child at the memorial.

“There will be wreaths laid for different veterans service organizations,” he said. “Hanging on the wall, there will be a POW/MIA wreath, there will be a red, white, and blue wreath that will say ‘U.S.,’ and then we’ll have the VFWs, and all the other different VSOs will be hanging their wreaths.”

Schulze said he hopes for a good turnout. “It’s a nice ceremony,” he said.