Robert D. Huston
On Friday evening, 18 September 1998, I attended a ceremony in honor of National POW/MIA Recognition Day conducted by VVA chapter 203 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Eastgate Postal Store, Chattanooga, Tennessee of the USPS deserves a special note of recognition here for not only hosting the all-day event, but for declaring the POW/MIA flag will be flown, beginning that day, 365 days a year until all of our missing are fully accounted for.
The day began with a ceremony at 0900 raising the POW/MIA flag by members of the VVA Chapter 203 Honor Guard. The ceremony was attended by all employees and mail carriers who work from that location, in addition to representatives from the Chattanooga General Mail Facility (the main postal routing and distribution center here), VVA Chapter 203, and members of the general public.
Following the flag raising ceremony, the Tennessee Moving Wall, a mobile memorial designed similar to the VietNam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC which lists the names of all those killed or missing during the war in VietNam, was on public display inside the postal facility. Representatives of VVA Chapter 203 were on hand all day to answer questions about the memorial, their experiences in VietNam, and the POW issue. The Postal Store provided refreshments for all throughout the day.
Immediately following sunset, the VVA Chapter 203 Honor Guard conducted the candlelight silent table ceremony. Following the ceremony, there was not a dry eye in the small crowd participating in the candlelight vigil.
Robert Huston 1998
