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Lest we forget: The 15th Wing pays tribute to National POW/MIA Day

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Terri Paden
  • 15th Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii --  The 15th Wing wrapped up a week-long tribute to those held as prisoners of war or are still missing in action with a remembrance ceremony at the Missing Man Memorial on Hickam Field Sept. 20.

The ceremony commenced following the completion of a remembrance run held at the track on Hickam Field. Beginning Sept. 19, hundreds of Team Hickam members paid homage to the sacrifices of the men and women who've served before them by relaying a metal baton between units continuously for 24 hours before running to the Missing Man Memorial to attend the ceremony.

In addition to the run, the guest speaker for the event, former POW, retired Col. Henry Fowler, spoke to the crowd of more than 300 Airmen about his time as a POW in Hoa Lo Prison, infamously known as Hanoi Hilton.

Lieutenant, at the time, Fowler was an F-4 Phantom pilot deployed to Vietnam when his plane was struck and he was forced to eject from the aircraft. Severely injured, he landed 24 miles from the capitol city where he was subsequently captured and forced to endure an eight-hour walk to the POW camp, during which he was hung and stoned several times.

Fowler said during his 2,157 days at the prison, he and his fellow POWs were confined to concrete cells where they were fed two "filthy" meals a day, and denied even modest conveniences including windows, beds, toilets and hot water, and were only allowed outside for 15 minutes a day.

"Our motto was U.S.," he said of what gave him and his fellow POW's the will to keep going, and the strength to deny an early release even after it was offered to him. "That didn't stand for United States, that stood for Unity over Self. Our goal was to bring home honor to the U.S., then to bring home those that needed to come home more than we did, and then bring ourselves homes."

However, a lesson can be learned in even the bleakest of situations, and Fowler said his time as a POW taught him a great one.

"Freedom is like air," he said. "You don't miss it 'til it's not there."

He choked up as he attempted to describe the moment it finally sank in for him that he was free.

"Coming home on the aircraft, about 30 minutes into the flight, the commander said we'd just crossed out of Vietnam waters--welcome to freedom."

He said there were no words in the dictionary to describe how he felt in that moment.

Before concluding his speech, Fowler advised the crowd that there is a difference in knowing what freedom means and understanding what freedom means.

He quoted a graduation commencement speech he'd once heard saying, " ... There are some things worth dying for. The freedom you have here [in America] is one of them."

After Fowler addressed the crowd, 15th Wing Commander, Col. Johnny Roscoe, encouraged the men and women of Team Hickam to continue to study history and seek out the stories of men like Fowler in order to "learn the lessons of those men and women who rose up against incredible odds, incredible adversity and were victorious."

Following the speeches, Roscoe was presented with the remembrance run baton on behalf of the participants. The ceremony concluded with a wreath presentation, a reading of the Code of Conduct, a 21-gun salute and the playing of taps.