All gave some, some gave all

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Joshua Smoot
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  During the week of Sept. 15-19, Malmstrom Air Force Base commemorated service members who have been taken as prisoners of war or listed as missing in action.

Nearly 1,500 Airmen are still missing and unaccounted for from various conflicts. There are more than 83,000 Americans still unaccounted for across the Department of Defense.

On Sept. 15 and 16, information booths were set up at The Exchange and Commissary on base.

From noon Sept. 17 to noon Sept.18, runners participated in the POW/MIA remembrance run. Runners ran in teams for a 24 hour period to help raise awareness in the community.

On Sept. 18, the film "The Wereth Eleven" was played at the base auditorium. The movie retraces the steps 11 black soldiers from the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion took when their unit was overrun by German soldiers at the start of the Battle of the Bulge. Their 10-mile trek from their battery position to Wereth, Belgium, would be the last journey of their lives as a local resident turned them in to a Schutzstaffel scouting party. Subsequently, all 11 were killed in one of the least understood, as well as unknown, war crimes of WWII.

On Sept. 19, the POW/MIA recognition retreat ceremony was held at the Medal of Honor Park on base.

The POW/MIA retreat ceremony is one of the most meaningful ceremonies Malmstrom does, said Col. Tom Wilcox, 341st Missile Wing commander.

"We get to honor the folks that came before us who are still missing, but we also get to honor those of us who are in uniform today."

Retired Lt. Jason Redman, former U.S. Navy SEAL, was the guest speaker during the retreat ceremony.

"There's nothing better that we can do than to honor those who have gone forward and fought and lost, and also those who have been prisoners of war or are still missing," Redman said.

In September 2007, while acting as assault force commander to capture an Al Qaeda high value individual, Redman's assault team came under heavy machine gun and small-arms fire and he was severely wounded in the ensuing firefight. After 37 surgeries, Redman uses his positive attitude to motivate others and raise awareness of the sacrifices of America's military forces and their families.

"We have to remember," Wilcox said. "That's what this is about. It's so everybody remembers and can understand what those great Americans did for us during World War II, the Korean war, the Vietnam war, the Cold war, Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan."