Photo By Norman Llamas | Retired U.S. Navy Storekeeper 3rd Class Ramon Rosales, an El Paso native and former...... read more read more
FORT BLISS, TX – Fort Bliss held a Prisoner of War/Missing in Action recognition ceremony Sept. 20, at Memorial Circle.
National POW/MIA Recognition Day is observed annually, on the third Friday of September throughout the U.S. and around the world with a central theme to show commitment to full accountability for the families of capture service members and missing war heroes.
The day was first observed in 1979 after Congress and then President Jimmy Carter signed a proclamation making it official, after the families of the more than 2,500 Vietnam War POW/MIAs pushed for full accountability in finding their loved ones.
Retired Storekeeper 3rd Class Ramon Rosales, an El Paso native, was the key speaker at this event and he spoke about his 11-month ordeal as a Prisoner of War in North Korea, following the attack and subsequent seizure of the U.S.S. Pueblo, on Jan. 23, 1968.
“We were on a spying mission, roughly 15.8 miles away from a North Korean Island, in international waters and not inside the North Korean 12-mile demarcation zone when we came under attack,” said Rosales. “The attack was illegal and shouldn’t have happened.”
That day, the U.S.S. Pueblo came under attack by North Korean naval vessels and MiG jets. One service member was killed, and several were wounded. The 82 surviving crew members were captured and held prisoner for 11 months.
“During the 11-months that I spent as a War Prisoner, they tortured me, almost daily,” said Rosales. “The North Koreans thought that I was a South Korean soldier, because of the color of my skin. They kept asking me questions in Korean and expecting me to understand but I didn’t understand a word of what they were asking me, so they kept hurting me.
“My life changed dramatically, I lost my youth as I had to, all of the sudden, become a man whether I liked it or not,” said Rosales. “I was 19 years old when the incident took place. When I finally came home, I spent five weeks in the hospital before being medically retired from the Navy.
To this day, the U.S.S. Pueblo remains a commissioned vessel of the United States Navy and is the only ship of the U.S. Navy currently being held captive. It is on display in North Korea despite continuing diplomatic efforts to secure its return.
Nearly 81,000 American service members remain missing after having served in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and other conflicts involving the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
“Locating and identifying the remains of service members killed in conflicts remains the Defense Department and the nation’s ‘Ironclad commitment’,” said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III, while speaking at this year’s National POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony at the Pentagon
| Date Taken: | 09.20.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.26.2024 17:49 |
| Story ID: | 481899 |
| Location: | EL PASO, TEXAS, US |
| Hometown: | EL PASO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 24 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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