Absent military personnel remembered in Carson City

Remembrance of absent servicemen and -women infused somber and prayerful participants during a ceremony held by veterans and loved ones in Carson City on Friday.

It was an observance ceremony of the Vietnam Veterans of America-Carson Area Chapter 388 for National POW/MIA Recognition Day. The late-morning ceremony was held at the Nevada State Veterans Memorial, behind the Silver State’s Capitol building downtown.

“This is a special event,” said Caleb Cage, executive director of the Nevada Office of Veterans Services.

Cage spoke after Mayor Robert Crowell, who said it is staggering to contemplate the significant remaining number prisoners of war, missing in action or otherwise unaccounted for from U.S. wars or military engagements in which the nation’s service personnel have fought and died.

“As staggering as it is, that’s the price of war; that’s the price of freedom,” Crowell said. The mayor also noted that people even now are endangered in overseas conflicts and that “death or injury may be around the corner for them.”

Darrol L. Brown, master of ceremonies and a past president of Carson Area Chapter 388, noted Cage’s and Crowell’s service in the military during his introduction of each.

He also said it wasn’t only recognition day, it was remembrance day for those not present and their families.

Chapter 388 members performed the missing warrior table and honors ceremony, which ended with a narrator intoning, “We vigilantly await their return. Please remember.”