Skip to main content (Press Enter).
 News
    
        Photos

    Week in Photos

    Air Force TV

    Commentaries

    Features

    Art

    About Us
    
        Air Force Senior Leaders
    
        SECAF

    CSAF

    CMSAF

    Biographies

    Fact Sheets

    SECAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library
    
        CSAF Leadership Library 2022

    CSAF Leadership Library 2021

    CSAF Reading List Pre-2020 Archive
    
        2018 CSAF Reading List

    2017 CSAF Reading List

    2016 CSAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library 2023

    CMSAF Leadership Library

    50 Years of the CMSAF

    Adjunct Professors

    Air Force Strategic Documents

    Arctic Strategy

    Empowered Airmen

    State Licensure Portability

    Careers

    AF Federal Advisory Committees

    AF 75th Anniversary

    Policy Updates

    AF Content Management

    Contact Us

    AF Sites
    
        Site RegistrationU.S. Air Force LogoAir Force

        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Powell, 387th Air Expeditionary Squadron commander, poses for a portrait at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, Sept. 21, 2018. National POW/MIA Recognition Day is held each year on Sept. 21. There are currently more than 82,000 Americans missing from past conflicts dating back to World War II. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Christopher Stoltz)Not Forgotten
                        
                        
                        U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Powell, 387th Air Expeditionary Squadron commander, poses for a portrait at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, Sept. 21, 2018. National POW/MIA Recognition Day is held each year on Sept. 21. There are currently more than 82,000 Americans missing from past conflicts dating back to World War II. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Christopher Stoltz)
                
                Photo Details /
                        Download Hi-Res

Not ForgottenPublished Sept. 23, 2018
                    
                    By Lt. Col. Nathan Powell
                    
                    
                    387th Air Expeditionary Squadron
            **SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) --**When you walk into many dining facilities in the Air Force, you see it in the corner or off to the side: the lone chair and place setting. In the hurries of our day, we become numb to the sight of it: the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action table with a setting for someone who has never returned. Every year, on the third Friday of September, we remember and honor former prisoners of war and the families of those whose loved ones never returned from war.
The U.S.--with an all-volunteer military and holding the right of life as the first of all inalienable rights-- considers it a sacred duty and solemn obligation to never leave anyone behind and  to always remember those who remain missing.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency is the Defense Department’s lead agency to recover, identify and account for missing Americans from our nation’s past conflicts and fulfill this promise.
There are currently over 82,000 Americans missing from past conflicts dating back to World War II. There are 72,823 missing from WWII, 7,683 from the Korean War, 1,594 from the Vietnam War, 126 from the Cold War, one from Operation El Dorado Canyon, two from Operation Desert Storm and three from Operation Iraqi Freedom.
These Americans fought on nearly every continent and in every corner of the globe. The mission to account for our nation’s missing is a global operation and dedicated to the families who still wait for their loved ones to return.
My first understanding of the POW/MIA mission, like most people my age, came from ‘Missing in Action’ and ‘Rambo’ movies. I never thought much more of it than that until I was 17 years old and a senior in high school. As part of a history class senior project, we were given an assignment to write a report on someone who died in the Vietnam War.
Later that year, my high school took a class trip to Washington, D.C., where each of us would make a rubbing from the Vietnam War Memorial of the person we wrote about. This action completed our assignment and 12 days after graduation I reported to the United States Air Force Academy to begin my Air Force career.
During my second year at the Academy, I was tasked one weekend to monitor the dormitory area. It was a boring job, and  in the quiet and monotony  my mind began to wander. I began thinking about the Air Force pilot I wrote my report on, and recalled he was from Colorado. I then decided I would flip through the phone book and call people with his last name to see if they were related.
The first person I called, I asked if they knew Capt. Roger Helwig, and she replied that she did. She was Roger’s mother. That phone call resulted in meeting Roger’s mother and father and going to their home where they showed me pictures of Roger and his medals and told me stories of their son. I provided them the report I wrote about Roger and prior to my graduation from the Air Force Academy, I met them one last time to let them know I would never forget their son.
Years later, as a C-130 (Hercules) pilot, I found myself inserting an investigation team into Laos, into the very province where Capt. Helwig was shot down September 11, 1969, and never recovered. Years after my Laos assignment, in 2016, I found myself assigned to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
There I discovered all the work the Agency had done, excavating jungle, diverting a river, numerous interviews with locals, cataloging family DNA reference samples and conducting years of research all to find Capt. Helwig and Capt. Roger Stearns, two pilots flying F-4 Phantom IIs as forward air controllers along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Stearns was recovered and identified in 1990. The only item recovered at the crash site for Helwig was his dog tag.
Helwig’s dog tag was returned to his widow in August 2016, and on May 9, 2017, a remembrance ceremony was held for Capt. Helwig at the United States Air Force Academy cemetery which I was honored to attend. There I met his  widow and his brother, his mother and father since passing, and a few of his squadron mates from Vietnam, all telling new stories, reinforcing the character of the man I wrote about 19 years ago.
The POW/MIA flag, table, bracelets and recognition day are reminders of the highest nobility of those servicemen and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice and the dedication of their families who still endure the pain of waiting for their return. There is not a day I do not think of Capt. Roger Danny Helwig from Colorado and hope that my service is an honor to his memory and the sacrifice of his family.POW 



MIA 



commentary 



Vietnam 



Agency 



accounting 



AFCENT Featured News
        Senior Leader Priorities
                SecAF, CSAF, CMSAF begin Indo-Pacific trip focused on ACE
                    
                    DAF leaders talk budget, reoptimizing the force
                    
                    DAF leaders speak at National Character and Leadership Symposium
                    
                    DAF members recognized during BEYA STEM awards
                    
                    DAF senior enlisted advisors discuss Airmen, Guardians in the fightInnovation
                F-16s arrive to be modified for autonomous testing
                    
                    AFWERX director discusses role of tech startups, quick innovation in Great Power Competition
                    
                    DAF delivers lethality at the speed of data during Project Convergence Capstone 4
                    
                    DAF welcomes industry partners to HQ development program
                    
                    DAF announces Spark Tank 2024 finalistsMAJCOM News
                Safety enterprise announces new mission, vision, goals in 2024 strategic plan
                    
                    Air Combat Command welcomes new commander
                    
                    USAFE-AFAFRICA commander discusses Integrated Air, Missile Defense during Munich Security Conference
                    
                    Flosi to AFMC family: Embrace change, make every day count
                    
                    AMC rises to increasing global tension
 Quick Links
AccessibilityContact UsEqual OpportunityFOIA | Privacy | Section 508Information QualityInspector GeneralJAG Court-Martial DocketLink DisclaimerNo FEAR ActOpen GovernmentOSI Tip LinePlain LanguageQuestionsResilienceRSSSite MapVeterans Crisis LineCareers
Join the Air ForceAir Force BenefitsAir Force CareersAir Force ReserveAir National GuardCivilian ServiceConnect
            Get Social with Us
            
            Official United States Air Force Website
    Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil