[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 181 (Monday, September 20, 1999)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 50731-50732]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-24581]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 181 / Monday, September 20, 1999 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 50731]]
Proclamation 7221 of September 15, 1999
National POW/MIA Recognition Day, 1999
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
As we look back over this century that is swiftly
drawing to a close, we recognize that the light of
freedom still burns brightly in our world today because
of the service and sacrifice of America's men and women
in uniform. Through the devastation of two world wars
and the brutality of numerous regional conflicts; on
peacekeeping assignments and humanitarian missions;
from the darkest days of the Cold War to the fall of
the Berlin Wall, our Nation's service men and women
have fought the forces of tyranny and won signal
victories for liberty, human dignity, and the ideals of
democracy. On every continent, on the seas, and in the
air, gallant young Americans have paid for our future
with their own, and many have preserved our freedom by
sacrificing their own.
On National POW/MIA Recognition Day, we remember with
profound gratitude those who suffered captivity and
those whose fate remains unknown. Many American POWs
were tortured at the hands of their captors; all
experienced the ordeal of being held against their will
and the anguish of indefinite separation from their
families and their homeland.
Today we also honor the valiant families of our fellow
citizens who remain missing--families who have had to
suffer not only the absence of their loved ones, but
also the uncertainty of their fate. As Americans, we
remain unshakable in our resolve to achieve the fullest
possible accounting of those missing and to strive to
bring home the remains of those who have died. Only by
doing so can we begin to acknowledge the debt we owe to
these patriots and assuage the grief of the families
they left behind for the sake of our Nation.
On September 17, 1999, the flag of the National League
of Families of American Prisoners of War and Missing in
Southeast Asia, a black and white banner symbolizing
America's missing and our unwavering determination to
account for them, will be flown over the White House,
the U.S. Capitol, the Departments of State, Defense,
and Veterans Affairs, the Selective Service System
Headquarters, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean
War Veterans Memorial, national cemeteries, and other
locations across our country.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of
the United States, do hereby proclaim September 17,
1999, as National POW/MIA Recognition Day. I ask all
Americans to join me in honoring former American
prisoners of war and those whose fate is still
undetermined. I also encourage the American people to
remember with compassion and concern the courageous
families who persevere in their quest to know the fate
of their missing loved ones. Finally, I urge Federal,
State, and local officials and private organizations to
observe this day with appropriate ceremonies, programs,
and activities.
[[Page 50732]]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fifteenth day of September in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twenty-fourth.
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 99-24581
Filed 9-17-99; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P
