'We Have Not Forgotten Their Sacrifice': Tulsa VFW Post Honors Missing Soldiers, Prisons Of War

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Tulsa's VFW Post is honoring prisoners of war and those who went missing in action.

A National Recognition Day takes place every year on the third Friday in September.

The ceremony honored and remembered the men and women who endured the hardships as Prisoners of War and the Missing in Action who are still unaccounted for.

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, more than 1,300 Oklahoma soldiers are unaccounted for from World War II and the Korean, Vietnam and Cold Wars.

Joshua Starks and other members of the Tulsa VFW Post are making sure those troops are not forgotten.

The thirty names of Oklahoma service members who were left behind from the Vietnam War were read aloud and repeated.

Starks served in Afghanistan and is glad those soldiers are being recognized and honored.

"As we remember our service members it's so important that we pay homage to them and their sacrifice, and it's also so important to remember the other side of that, the families that never got their loved one back home, to know that we have not forgotten their sacrifice," Starks said.

He says the Post is like a brotherhood where many share stories about what they endured overseas.

He says he can't imagine what it was like for those who served in Vietnam.

"Being an Afghan veteran, all of us came home. We didn't leave anybody behind in Afghanistan, we have accountability on our soldiers. I can't imagine the type of torture one would go through coming home from Vietnam knowing there are still brothers and sisters in cages back in Vietnam and the guilt you would feel," Starks said.

While it can be hard to feel loss, he thinks it's more important to keep the memories of those soldiers alive.