The National League of POW-MIA Families will be holding their conference in VA Beach. From Thursday October 13 – Sunday October 16 we will have approximately 30 family members of servicemen still Missing In Action from the Vietnam War in town for an educational workshop. We are holding classes for the families on case research, underwater archeology, satellite imagery and more so that it may aid them in their individual case resolution. We will have sons, daughters, widows and extended family members representing the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marines and a civilian loss as well.

The event is being supported by the Mid Atlantic Region and RADM Gray will be our guest speaker on Thursday October 13 after which we will be holding a Navy Birthday cake cutting. There will also be tours for the families of local memorials and we are in the process of finalizing a tour at Oceana. On Saturday October 15th, MG Ken Bowra (USA ret) former MACV-SOG and Commander of the JFK Special Warfare Center will be our guest speaker. After his speech we are asking the POW-MIA Families to share their stories. We would love to have some members of the Veteran community at this part of the event so that the families can see that the military veteran community doesn’t forget their own. The Saturday event would last from 0830 – 1230. Even two or three veterans present would mean a lot.

A second opportunity for involvement would be on Sunday when we will be holding a Plane Pull event at the Military Aviation Museum in Pungo. Originally, this event was intended to be a fundraiser but due to the generosity of the Gary Sinese Foundation in helping us out at our event we no longer are requiring any donations to participate. If anybody from HRVCO would like to send a team to participate and pull the vintage A1 Skyraider it would again show support for our families. The event will last from 0900 to 1100 on Sunday the 16th.

Town Center Crown Plaza in VA Beach. Right now we have families representing 18 different MIA cases coming into town.

On the opening day of the event we will have Mayor Bobby Dyer, Congresswoman Luria (confirming schedule), State Senator Kiggans (confirming schedule), RADM Christopher Gray, the Director of the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency and more.

The event is designed to bring MIA families together to learn from experts in underwater archeology, satellite imagery, research and more. The Vietnam War Missing In Action families were never treated with the respect and gratitude that they deserved.

We would love to have support from you and/or any of the HRVCO groups. We are trying to keep the costs down for the families while being able to do lots of events around Hampton Roads with them. Looking for support for teams for our plane pull! Donations can help sponsor a family team or better yet enter a team from HRVCO! Don’t worry if the team can’t make the $1000 donation or even a 10 person crew. We just want the support from Veterans on our mission to bring back those left behind. A few hundred dollars can make a difference.