WHEREAS, today there are 1,957 Americans still missing and unaccounted for from Southeast Asia, including 46 from the State of North Carolina and 5 from the City of Fayetteville, and their families, friends, and fellow veterans still endure uncertainty concerning their fate; AND
WHEREAS, we as Americans believe that freedom is precious because it has been won and preserved for all at a very great cost; AND
WHEREAS, few Americans can more fully appreciate the value of liberty and self-government than those Americans who were interned in enemy prison camps as POWs and those who remain missing in action; AND
WHEREAS, the courage, commitment, and devotion to duty demonstrated by those servicemen and women who risked their lives for our sake has moved the hearts of all citizens of Fayetteville; AND
WHEREAS, their dignity, faith, and valor reminds us of the allegiance we owe to our nation and its defenders as well as the compassion we owe to those families of the MIAs who daily demonstrate heroic courage and fortitude in the face of uncertainty;
NOW THEREFORE, I, Milo McBryde, Mayor of the City of Fayetteville, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim September 17-21, 2001, as
and September 21, 2001, as
and ask all citizens to join me in honoring former American prisoners of war and those whose fate is still undetermined and to observe this week and special day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
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Milo McBryde
Mayor
