An Iowa native was in Washington, D.C. to speak at the Memorial Weekend’s “Rolling Thunder” event. Le Mars native Lieutenant Colonel Mark Brown works at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii with the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command.
“Rolling Thunder” is a motorcycle pilgrimage that has riders from all over the country on the road boumd for the nation’s capital for a rally to bring the focus on Prisoners of War and soldiers still listed as “Missing in Action.” The original “Rolling Thunder” was a battle fought in Vietnam and a group took on the name in their ongonig effort to be heard on the subject of soldiers who are prisoners of war or missing in action in Vietnam.
Brown spoke on behalf of the Joint POW-MIA Command this past Sunday to the thousands gathered on the National Mall in Washington for the Rolling Thunder event. Brown says the military is keeping a promise to everyone who ever served in the military, that they will not be left behind.
He says the command works to bring closure to families by accounting for their family members who never came back from wars. His speech was carried on the cable TV news channel C-Span on Sunday.
There are still 88,000 Americans unaccounted for from wars. He says the accounting command has found soldiers who lost touch from as far ago as the Civil War, “and we’re identifying them to send them back to their families.”