POW-MIA flag flies again at Nevada Capitol

CARSON CITY — Because of the persistence of a Vietnam War veteran from Las Vegas, the POW-MIA flag will fly in front of the state Capitol on Veterans Day and every other day from now on.

Frank Janata, also a retired firefighter, said he couldn’t understand why the flag was not flying at the Capitol during a trip he made to Carson City in September.

“I couldn’t get any answers,” he said. “Governor Gibbons flew Wild Weasels’ (F-4G aircraft) in Vietnam during the war. He must remember the POWs and the MIAs. The POW-MIA flag was flying across the street (in front of the attorney general’s office), but it wasn’t at the Capitol.”

Janata tried to contact Gov. Jim Gibbons about the flag’s omission through members of his staff. After a couple of weeks of waiting, he contacted the media.

The flag went up late last week.

“I had tears in my eyes when they called me and said the flag was up,” said Janata, who comes from a family of veterans. “I didn’t do this for me. I did it for veterans. The flag is very special to us. The POWs and MIAs never will be forgotten by us.”

The United States has 1,728 service members from the Vietnam War who remain missing, along with one prisoner of war, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured in Afghanistan and has not been released.

Bergdahl, 23, of Ketchum, Idaho, was captured by the Taliban in southeastern Afghanistan on June 30. Accounts of how he was captured differ. A 28-minute video released by the Taliban on July 14 showed Bergdahl and a close-up of his dog tags.

Two Army paratroopers, whose names have not been released, also were reported missing last Wednesday during a resupply mission in western Afghanistan. But authorities said they might have died after being swept down a river.

More than 86,000 American are missing from World War II, and 8,000 from the Korean War.

While the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia began drives in the 1970s to place the POW-MIA flag on public buildings out of concern for missing service members in Vietnam, the flag has come to represent the missing from all American wars.

Since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, the remains of 855 missing service members have been returned to the United States for interment.

Three civilians were released by the Vietnamese government shortly after the war ended, but no living American service member has returned home since the end of that war.

Ann Mills-Griffin, executive director of the POW-MIA Families group, said the Vietnamese government’s cooperation with her organization “has improved significantly over the years.” But she said the government at times has been unwilling to return previously uncovered remains.

Gibbons can only speculate why the POW-MIA has not been flying in front of the Capitol.

In the past, the flag flew over the Capitol, but he believes someone stopped that practice because of the cost of replacing flags.

Flags flying on top of the Capitol dome must be replaced every few weeks because they are ripped apart by high winds. A 3-foot-by-5-foot flag costs about $45.

Whatever the reason for the past omission, Gibbons said they will fly from now on atop the flagpole in front of the building, which doesn’t face such high winds.

“We are flying it now, and we will fly it,” he said.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.