Dark shapes against a field of blue: Four aircraft roared overhead, flying low. Slowly, agonizingly graceful, one pulled away, concluding its journey alone.

White words on a field of black: “You are not forgotten.” Gently, the flag waved as Columbus resident Jo Shumake stared up at the sky, at the aircraft growing distant in the summer sun, and thought of her father.

At Columbus Air Force Base and around the nation Friday, more than 200,000 Americans who have been listed as prisoners of war or remain missing in action were remembered during National POW/MIA Recognition Day, which is held annually on the third Friday of September.

Last December, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command listed 83,473 servicemen and women still missing since World War II.

In Friday’s ceremony in Columbus, Col. Jim Sears, commander of the 14th Flying Training Wing, said it’s all too easy to ignore these casualties of war, but the base has taken “great lengths” to honor their contributions, with many streets and other areas bearing their names.

One of those streets bears the name of Shumake’s father, the late Col. Glynn Shumake, who, along with nine other members of the 358th Bombardment Squadron, was taken prisoner in March 1945, when his B-17 was hit by enemy fire and crashed in a wheat field on the east bank of the Rhine River in Bremen, Germany.

He never talked much about his six weeks in the German POW camp, not until Jo Shumake was grown and stationed in Berlin as a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Corps.

But he loved Columbus Air Force Base, she said Friday, and she appreciates both CAFB’s recognition of her father as well as the annual POW/MIA retreat ceremony, which included the playing of “Taps,” and the 49th Fighter Training Squadron’s flyover, during which they executed the Missing Man formation, an aerial salute reserved for solemn and commemorative events.

Also recognized Friday were former POWs Col. Carlyle “Smitty Harris,” of Tupelo; Lt. Col. Richard “Gene” Smith, of West Point; and the late Staff Sgt. Rufus Ward Sr., who was represented by his son, Columbus resident Rufus Ward Jr.

Harris, an F-105 pilot, spent eight years as a captive — five and a half years of which were spent in solitary confinement — after his plane was shot down in 1965 while trying to bomb the Dragon’s Jaw, a bridge in North Vietnam, during the Vietnam War.

Smith was taken prisoner in 1967, when his plane was shot down over Hanoi, Vietnam. After his release in 1973, he was assigned to CAFB, where he served as commander of the 50th Flying Training Squadron and director of operations for the 14th Flying Training Wing.

Ward Sr., a native of Columbus, was a B-17 tail gunner during WWII. He was captured in 1944 near Frankfort, Germany when his squadron was attacked by more than 60 German fighters.

Sears said the POW/MIA flag, which is the only flag other than “Old Glory” to ever fly over the White House, represents the sacrifice and plight of those who sacrificed their freedom, and sometimes their lives, to preserve liberty.

“Its presence reminds us that, while we enjoy the privilege of freedom, somewhere there are service members who have not been accounted for and whose whereabouts are unknown,” Sears said.

“The greatest nation will never rest until all those who have served something greater than themselves, and for whom we cannot account, are returned,” he continued. “Let us remember their sacrifice. Let us remember the price they paid to defend our freedom, defend our democracy and defend this great nation.”

National POW/MIA Recognition Day has been observed since 1980 after U.S. Congress passed a resolution authorizing it on July 18, 1979.

Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.

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