Normally, I am not a betting man. However, I think it’s safe to wager that many of us are thankful today is Friday. TGIF is a sentiment most of us can relate to and you have probably thought it to yourself or said it aloud more than once on any one of the 54 Fridays during the past 372 days since the last third Friday in September. But for many, today is only one day out of a thousand stretched into years when our nation’s prisoners of war and missing in action (POW/MIA) are remembered.

In honor of National POW/MIA Recognition Day, we unite as a country to pay tribute to America’s POW/MIA and to those who’ve never lost faith, echoing the intent of the day — “You Are Not Forgotten.” The day serves as a stark reminder of the sacrifices made on behalf of our nation, and also a day marked with hope.

Many of America’s POW/MIA voices may have faded during the years, but what they’ve taught us hasn’t. Through their shared experiences they have taught us the importance of unity over self, the need to connect with other human beings even in the most basic ways, and the importance and need for a fellowship of norms and cultures.

On March 9, 1989, and every day since, the National League of Families POW/MIA flag has been the only flag displayed in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and the only other flag, aside from Old Glory, to be flown over the White House the third Friday in September. In 1990, the 101st Congress passed a law recognizing the POW/MIA flag as a constant “…symbol of our Nation's concern and commitment to resolving as fully as possible the fates of Americans still prisoner, missing, and unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, thus ending the uncertainty for their families and the Nation.”

Today, the POW/MIA flag will be flown around the country as a reverent salute and an unwavering commitment to America’s prisoners of war and missing in action — past, present and future.

Maj. Michael Davis O’Donnell wrote the following in 1970, several months before he went missing in action in Vietnam and was listed as killed in action in 1978:

“If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.

Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not have always.

Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own.

And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.”