JI CC512/23
02 May 2023 Re: Fly POW/MIA Flag at City Hall
I am here this evening to request of this Council to join our neighboring cities of Carson, Lomita, Rolling Hills Estates, Gardena, Hawthorne, Torrance, Hermosa Beach, El Segundo and Culver City that fly the POW/MIA flag full time either beneath the United States flag or along side it at their respective City Halls.
In 2019, a bipartisan United States Congress passed Public Law 116-67 mandating all federal facilities fly this flag to honor all those service personnel who valiantly served our country in previous wars who either were prisoners of war or who were declared missing in action.
As a United States Marine Corps veteran with compensable injuries received more than 50 years ago, I ask each of you to ponder a broader concept of what constitutes a prisoner of war and what "missing in action" can now also mean to many veterans and to many disabled veterans as well.
During my visits to the Los Angeles Veterans Administration Hospital for treatment, my wife Elaine and I witness the human carnage that line the corridors and fill the hospital beds as a result from previous wars and conflicts. Whether the injuries are physical or psychological, and often they are both, many veterans are indeed figuratively prisoners of war, and those missing arms, legs, eyes or parts of internal organs, or those who witnessed catastrophic events and are afflicted with post traumatic stress disorder can be fairly considered psychological prisoners of war and as having gone figurately missing in action. Understandably, many veterans can and do identify with the POW/MIA flag.
Redondo Beach is home to nearly 3,000 veterans. Additionally, Los Angeles County is home to over 252,000 veterans. And there are 1.8 million veterans that reside in California as well.
Having the POW/MIA flag displayed full time beneath the U.S. flag at our Redondo Beach City Hall will serve as a poignant reminder to all who see it, that our freedoms, which so many people in our country now take for granted, were secured by veterans who served our great and greatly blessed Republic.
The adage, "all gave some and some gave all" aptly describes a veteran's service to our country.
It is now time for the POW/MIA flag to permanently fly at Redondo Beach City Hall to honor our veterans as so many of our close and neighboring cities are doing so now.
Thank you, Douglas Sieker, District 5
1 JI 5/2/23 ce
02 May 2023 Re: Fly POW/MIA Flag at City Hall
Many American soldiers have been held captive as prisoners of war during numerous conflicts such as in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War 1, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf Wars.
During their brutal captivity, POWs were subjected to malnutrition and extreme torture which included coerced death marches, waterboarding, mutilations, vicious beatings, and prolonged solitary confinement These atrocities, among many horrifying others, were used in order to break the will of the soldier and some were ultimately tortured to death.
The missing in action are those American members of the armed forces who may have been killed, wounded, captured, executed or deserted and are unaccounted for. If deceased, neither their remains nor their graves have been positively identified.
The POW/MIA Accounting Agency estimates that more than 81,500 Americans still remain missing from WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf Wars.
Though the history of the POW/MIA flag grew out of the Vietnam War, this flag has also come to symbolize missing troops from throughout United States history. The importance of the POW/MIA flag lies in its continued visibility and its being a solemn reminder of America's unreturned soldiers.
More than any other single group in America, all past and present members of the military deserve our utmost respect, honor, gratitude and recognition for their service, sacrifice, bravery, and courage. They are the primary and preeminent force who have protected and defended our gift of liberty and all the freedoms we still have today.
As the adjacent cities of Hermosa Beach and Torrance, and numerous other neighboring cities do, permanently displaying the POW/MIA flag at Redondo Beach City Hall would be a small but important way to honor these true American heroes and would serve to steadfastly remind them and their families that they are not forgotten. As a city, we can never fully repay our profound debt to them, but we can and should recognize their service each and every day by flying the POW/MIA flag.
I sincerely thank, salute, recognize, appreciate, honor and am grateful to all of those who are serving or who have served in the United States military, especially those prisoners of war and the missing in action, that collectively through their sacrifices, have secured and ensured throughout our entire history up unto to this very day, the freedom and liberties we all enjoy, and that they should never ever be taken for granted nor ever be forgotten.
Thank you, Elaine Sieker District 5
1 cc JI $|2123
TO MAYOR BRAND AND THE REDONDO BEACH CITY COUNCIL:
Please accept my resignation from the Redondo Beach Historical Commission. /2h3
Ron Maroko
cC. JI 5/2/23
GREENLY
ART SPACE
2698 Junipero Ave, #113
Signal Hill, CA 90755
"SKONDOVITCH: A LEGACY"
Works by Alfred Skondovitch (1927 - 2011).
Beginning with the Abstract Expressionist
movement in New York in the 1940s and
1950s and continuing through over five
decades of life in Alaska.
Opening Reception: Saturday /close Event 5/12, Friday 4pm-7pm March 11th, 2023, 4pm to 7pm
Show runs through May 12th, 2023
Open Hours: Mon, Wed & Fri, 11am - 2pm / Sun 1-5
or by appointment - (562) 533-4020
www.GreenlyArtSpace.org
Greenly Art Space is a 501(c)3 Non-Profit
This Exhibit is supported in part by a
grant from the California Arts Council CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL