UNVEILING OF MISSING MAN TABLE

Name: UNVEILING OF MISSING MAN TABLE
Start: 2025-09-04T10:00:00-04:00
Location: Jacksonville International Airport

Schedule

Thu, 04 Sep, 2025 at 10:00 am

UTC-04:00

Location

Jacksonville International Airport | Jacksonville, FL

UNVEILING OF MISSING MAN TABLE ON THURS 4 SEPTEMBER 2025 at 1000 HOURS
ADJACENT TO MILITARY LOUNGE AT JACKSONVILLE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

‘You Are Not Forgotten’

Please be advised that this year at the Jacksonville International Airport the POW-MIA MISSING MAN TABLE UNVEILING CEREMONY will be held at 1000 hours on Thursday 4 September 2025 on the upper level of the airport adjacent to THE MILITARY LOUNGE and the piano platform.

For the second year in a row, the North Jax Rotary and First Coast High School will join the Jacksonville Aviation Authority Leadership Team and other organizations will hold an unveiling of the “Missing Man Table”. The Table, also known as the Fallen Comrade Table or the POW-MIA Table, is a ceremonial table displayed to honor fallen, missing, or imprisoned military service members and the families who seek their return. It is a very respectful remembrance of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. The exhibit at the JIA airport will run from 4 Sept through 30 Sept 2025.

National POW/MIA Recognition Day is held on the third Friday of every September. While it is observed on a specific day, it is also a time to remember, honor, and teach throughout the entire month of September 2025 about those who are prisoners-of-war or missing-in-action. This year the National POW-MIA Memorial and Museum at Cecil Field will hold its annual observance ceremonies on Saturday 20 September 2025. For specific details, please see the www.powmiamemorial.org website. Warmest regards / North JAX Rotarian Pat Mulvihill / TEXT 904.534.0035

The table is placed in a location so that all passengers, visitors, and people going by can pause, look at the display, and learn.

SOME OF THE SYMBOLS ON THE ROUND TABLE HONORING THOSE SOLDIERS MISSING FROM OUR RANKS
WHITE TABLECLOTH - Symbolizes the purity of their intentions to respond to their country’s call to arms.
BLACK NAPKIN - Represents the sorrow of captivity.
A SINGLE RED ROSE IN A VASE - Signifies the blood shed to ensure America’s freedom.
THE YELLOW RIBBON AROUND THE VASE - Represents a demand for proper accounting of those who are not among us today.
A LEMON SLICE ON THE PLATE - To show a captive soldier’s bitter fate.
GRAINS OF SALT ON THE PLATE - Reminds us of the countless fallen tears of families as they wait.
AN INVERTED GLASS - Because they cannot toast with us.
AN EMPTY CHAIR - Because they are not here.
A WHITE CANDLE - For the hope that all our missing will return some day.
HISTORY OF JACKSONVILLE’S ROLE IN THE DESIGN OF THE POW-MIA FLAG
The table is carefully assembled to honor the more than 80,000 military members still missing and unaccounted for in 2025 since World War II. The very symbolic display outside of the JIA Military Lounge assures today’s service men and women that should something happen to them; their nation will do everything possible to bring them home. In 1971, Mrs. Mary Helen Hoff (the wife of U.S. Navy Missing-in-Action pilot LCDR Michael G. Hoff, still unaccounted for in 2025), a member of the National League of POW-MIA Families and a Jacksonville-Area resident, recognized the need for a symbol of our POWs and MIAs. Prompted by an article in the Jacksonville, Florida, Times-Union, she contacted a flag manufacturing firm, Annin & Company. The VP of this firm was sympathetic, and working with an Annin-contracted advertising agency, the banner (now flag) was created to represent America’s missing men. This flag is a Congressionally approved National Ensign. Besides the U.S. flag, the Pow-MIA flag is the only other flag authorized to fly over the White House and the only flag that can fly on the same flagstaff below our American flag. It features a silhouette of a POW, with a guard tower and barbed wire in the background, and the words “POW-MIA” at the top, and “You Are Not Forgotten” beneath. Originally designated for American prisoners of war, missing in action, or those otherwise unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, the flag is now widely accepted as a symbol of vigilance and remembrance for all POWs and MIAs. Accordingly, this flag has become a vital symbol for POWs and MIAs, their families and friends, and for our current and future U.S. Armed Forces.

NATIONAL POW-MIA RECOGNITION DAY OBSERVANCE AT CECIL FIELD

On Saturday 20 September 2025 there will be a special ceremony held at the National POW-MIA Memorial & Museum at Cecil Field to remember, honor and teach about those Americans who were prisoners-of-war and those missing-in-action heroes and the families who seek their return. Please see www.POWMIAMemorial.org for details as to time and events planned for this day.