National POW/MIA Recognition Day • 2025

Let us give you a few numbers to make this real. National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

According to a Congressional Research Service report on POWs:

130,201 World War II service members were imprisoned; 14,072 them died

7,140 Korean War service members were imprisoned; 2,701 of them died

725 Vietnam War service members were imprisoned; 64 of them died

37 service members were imprisoned during conflicts since 1991, including both Gulf wars; none are still in captivity

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, 83,114 Americans who fought in those wars are still missing, including:

73,515 from World War II (an approximate number due to limited or conflicting data)

7,841 from the Korean War

1,626 from Vietnam

126 from the Cold War

6 from conflicts since 1991

Many of our service members suffered as prisoners of war during several decades of varying conflicts. While some of them made it home, tens of thousands more never did.

You are not forgotten.