By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
The fear of being wounded or killed was constantly in the minds of Bob Andrzejczak and his fellow soldiers while fighting in the Iraq war.
But Andrzejczak noted there was something else that the soldiers agonized over even more: falling into the hands of brutal captors and being tortured as a prisoner of war.
“That would be, in our eyes, worse than death when we were deployed,” said Andrzejczak, who was an Army sergeant serving two tours of duty in Iraq and lost his left leg in battle.
Andrzejczak, now a Democratic state senator representing the 1st Legislative District, recalled those fears of being captured while speaking at the annual POW-MIA Recognition Day ceremony Friday in Sea Isle City.
Andrzejczak and other speakers emphasized that America must “never forget” the U.S. servicemen and women who remain missing in battle and that every effort must be made to bring them back home.
“Every member of the military who goes off to war deserves the right to come home after the battle is over. And every family who sends a son or daughter off to a foreign land deserves to know the ultimate fates of their loved ones,” Sea Isle Mayor Leonard Desiderio said.
“That’s why it is so important to never forget and to never stop searching for answers,” he continued. “In many cases, it takes decades to find the truth – but the search must continue.”
The solemn ceremony, held at Veterans Park amid a small crowd, included military veterans from the Korean War, Vietnam and Iraq. The mostly elderly vets proudly wore caps and clothes decorated with their military insignias.
Susan Burkhard, of Pitman, and her aunt, Shirley Ivins, of Glendora, attended the ceremony in honor of their military husbands.
“We are supporting our husbands and honoring our country, the United States of America, the greatest country in the world,” said Ivins, 79.
Ivins’ late husband, Robert, was a Navy veteran who served during the Korean War. Burkhard’s husband, Donald, now 80 years old, was a Marine who served two tours of duty in Vietnam. The 73-year-old Burkhard has a 51-year-old son, Neil Buscher, who was in the Navy.
“I’m here to honor my husband’s 21 years in the service and my son’s 30 years in the Navy,” she said.
Sea Isle’s ceremony was part of the National POW-MIA Recognition Day observance, which occurs annually on the third Friday in September.
Another speaker, Norman Marlin, the commander of the Cape May County American Legion, stressed that POW-MIA Recognition Day is a day “we take very seriously in the Legionnaires.”
During his remarks, Desiderio recited statistics from a Congressional research report on the staggering number of Americans who were taken as prisoners or remain missing in all U.S. wars, starting from World War I up to the war in Iraq.
Altogether, more than 140,000 U.S. military personnel were captured during that time and nearly 17,000 died in captivity, he said.
During wars in the 20th century, more than 83,000 Americans remain missing in action, according to the U.S. Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency.
“Let each of us take to heart the phrase, ‘You are not forgotten,’” Desiderio said of all the Americans who were POWs or remain missing in action.
Cape May County Sheriff Bob Nolan, who also spoke during the ceremony, noted that many of the family members of Americans who remain missing in action “continue to suffer in pain,” not knowing what happened to their loved ones.
“Much remains to be done and we can’t rest in our efforts,” Nolan said of finding out what happened to the rest of the Americans who remaining missing from wars.
Cape May County Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton, an Air Force veteran and member of the American Legion for 41 years, also spoke of the “terrible, terrible anxiety” suffered by the family members of Americans who were captured or are missing.
“If you think about that, it’s heart-wrenching. It’s always there. It never goes away,” Thornton said.
