U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Veteran Affairs Facebook Update
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- Today at 3:05 PM
09/19/2014 11:01 AM EDT
Today is National POW/MIA Recognition Day – you are not forgotten.
More than one-half million Americans have been captured and interned as POWs since the American Revolution. Not included in this figure are nearly 93,000 Americans who were listed as lost and never recovered. Only about 12,000 of America's former POWs are still living.
In 1981, Congress passed Public Law 97-37 entitled "Former Prisoners of War Benefit Act." This law accomplished several things. It established an advisory committee on former prisoners of war and mandated medical and dental care. It also identified certain diagnoses as presumptive service-connected conditions for former POWs. Subsequent public laws and policy decisions by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs have added additional diagnoses to the list of presumptive conditions.
Each VA regional office has a coordinator for former POWs. Any former POW who needs special assistance should ask to speak to the former POW coordinator. Learn more at: http://www.benefits.va.gov/PERSONA/veteran-pow.asp
More than one-half million Americans have been captured and interned as POWs since the American Revolution. Not included in this figure are nearly 93,000 Americans who were listed as lost and never recovered. Only about 12,000 of America's former POWs are still living.
In 1981, Congress passed Public Law 97-37 entitled "Former Prisoners of War Benefit Act." This law accomplished several things. It established an advisory committee on former prisoners of war and mandated medical and dental care. It also identified certain diagnoses as presumptive service-connected conditions for former POWs. Subsequent public laws and policy decisions by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs have added additional diagnoses to the list of presumptive conditions.
Each VA regional office has a coordinator for former POWs. Any former POW who needs special assistance should ask to speak to the former POW coordinator. Learn more at: http://www.benefits.va.gov/PERSONA/veteran-pow.asp
09/18/2014 07:30 PM EDT
Today’s Veteran of the Day is Gerald Stoddard. Gerald served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942-1944 as a pilot. His first assignment was with the 4th Fighter Group out of Royal Air Force (RAF) Base Debden, Essex which comprised of 3 American RAF Eagle Squadrons. After flying his P-38 Lightning for a week, he was transferred to RAF Station Wormingford to pilot a P-51 Mustang.
Gerald was on an escort mission over Germany when his aircraft was catastrophically hit by German anti-aircraft artillery. After bailing out, he said “they shot at me all the way down, I kept hearing the pops around me. I landed right behind the front lines but on the wrong side, so they captured me. That was the beginning of a long story, so much for that.”
“I went to about 3 or four camps and finally they kept me southeast of Berlin. It was no fun, but it was survivable, most of us survived” he said. Finally, “General Patton’s army came up, and drove the Germans out. They liberated us. Patton came in and talked to us, that was the end of it.”
Thank you for your service, Gerald! #POWMIA
Gerald was visiting the National World War II Memorial thanks to Honor Flight Austin
Gerald Stoddard, US Army Air Corp
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