Flag flies in memory of POWs, MIAs

Raising awareness
Flag flies in memory of POWs, MIAs
By Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer


The black and white flag for America’s missing in action joined the red, white and blue on one of Auburn’s most prominent flagpoles Friday.

And as the flag snapped in a stiff breeze above Veterans Memorial Park and below Old Glory, heads turned proudly upward, a school choir sang the National Anthem and veterans’ thoughts drifted to those left behind in the fields of Normandy or in the jungles of Southeast Asia.

Vietnam veteran R.C. Bynog had made it a goal to have the flag fly this year on national POW-MIA Remembrance Day. The Auburn ironworker sold commemorative hats to raise funds for the flag and helped convince county authorities that the flag deserved a place on a pole it had never graced before.

Friday’s ceremony took Bynog back to a time when he was barely 20 and driving convoy vehicles east of Saigon. He turns 60 later this year.

“It’s important,” Bynog said. “So we don’t forget the people who paid the ultimate sacrifice.”
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Raising awareness