By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Conspicuously placed at the front of Memorial Day ceremonies nationwide is a small table, draped with a simple white tablecloth and adorned with a red rose. A glass is placed upside down on the table and there is a solitary, empty chair.
Steeped in symbolism, the table and other items represent the soldiers or sailors who were taken prisoner or went missing in action and never returned home from war.
The white tablecloth symbolizes the purity of the soldiers and the red rose represents the blood they may have spilled.
The glass is turned upside down because there was no opportunity for those soldiers to enjoy a celebratory post-war toast. The chair remains empty because the soldiers are still missing.
Sea Isle City plans to place one of these “Chairs of Honor” in Excursion Park as a permanent reminder of the tens of thousands of U.S. military men and women who remain missing in action from wars beginning with World War I to the present day.
“The chair will remain perpetually (on display) and to help people remember that even though our soldiers are not here, there is still space for them,” Mayor Leonard Desiderio said. “We can never do enough to honor the sacrifices of all our veterans.”
Sea Isle plans to hold a dedication ceremony for the chair on Sept. 17, which coincides with National POW-MIA Recognition Day. Each year, Sea Isle holds a local ceremony to mark National POW-MIA Recognition Day.
Desiderio credited local veterans advocate Joe Griffies with approaching the city with the idea for a chair of honor in Sea Isle. In an interview Friday, Griffies also gave credit for the idea to Patrick J. Hughes, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran.
“The empty chair simply represents the over 80,000 men and women who have not returned from war,” said Griffies, 74, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam.
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.
Sea Isle’s chair of honor will be placed at the base of the city’s flag display at Excursion Park. One of the flags that fly from three flag poles overlooking the park is the nation’s POW-MIA flag. The flag is colored black in a somber reminder of Americans who were captured or remain missing in war.
“They promised the veterans that they will never stop looking to bring them home,” Griffies said of the U.S. government’s efforts to locate the missing service men and women.
Griffies lives in Rio Grande and owns a house in Sea Isle. He hosts the veterans-oriented Welcome Home radio show on WIBG 1020 AM.
Hughes lives full time in Glen Mills, Pa., and has a vacation home in Ocean City. He is the national photographer for Rolling Thunder Inc., an advocacy group that seeks to bring full accountability for prisoners of war and service members who remain missing from all U.S. wars.
Griffies has been collaborating with the Rothman Institute to place chairs of honor at all 42 Rothman healthcare facilities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, he said.
Hughes has been part of efforts to place chairs of honor at more than 125 locations nationwide. He noted that for each U.S. service member who remains missing, more than 80,000 families suffer from not knowing the fate of their loved ones.
However, the solemn table and chair display that is part of Memorial Day ceremonies nationwide suggests that perhaps all is not lost in the search for POWs and MIAs.
A white candle is also placed on the table, symbolizing the hope that all of the missing soldiers, sailors and other service members will someday return home.
