The POW Memorial - Remembering USAFA's Prisoners of War

The Association of Graduates’ Heritage Trail includes the POW Memorial Sculpture.  Located at the entrance of the Southeast Asia Memorial Pavilion, it contains the names of the 33 Academy graduates who were prisoners of war in Vietnam. 

It also lists the dates of their captivity and, if applicable, release.  Unfortunately, two graduates died in captivity:  Captains Lance Sijan, Class of ’65, and Michael Bosiljevac, Class of ’67.  Nineteen of those POWs, as well as family members of the deceased, attended the sculpture’s dedication ceremony on April 24th, 2015.  General Ron Yates, Class of ’60, initiated and oversaw the project.  In addition to his class, the Classes of ’63, ’64, ’65, and ’67 provided funding.  The 2000-pound bronze plaque, called “Honor Bound:  A Portrait of Courage,” was sculpted by Jim Nance, Class of ’71, who flew one of the C-141 missions that brought POWs out of Southeast Asia in 1973.  Incidentally, his father spent three years as a POW in World War II.  Then-Cadet Joseph Flescher, Class of ’14, served as the model for the determined and defiant POW depicted.  The metal used in the sculpture includes more than 100 donated copper POW bracelets that were melted into the bronze.

 

IMAGE GALLERY

 

 

The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Airforce Academy Association and Foundation

 

 

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