City Hosts 2023 POW-MIA Recognition Ceremony

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Veterans Advisory Council Host Annual POW-MIA Recognition Ceremony

WHAT:
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer will join City Commissioners and the Mayor’s Veterans Advisory Council to host the annual POW-MIA Recognition Day ceremony in honor of the United States military prisoners of war and those still missing in action. The ceremony reaffirms the city's commitment to bringing captured prisoners of war home to their families and vowing to never forget those missing in action.

This year, University of Central Florida Army ROTC cadets and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 2093 Band will lead a symbolic “setting of the table” where each item on the table represents the commitment to the relentless pursuit of missing members of the five military branches and to never forget the sacrifices of the U.S. Armed Forces.

The ceremony’s keynote speaker, Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson, became the first woman POW of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the first Black woman POW in American history. Spc. Johnson was among the members of the Army’s 507th Maintenance Company from Fort Bliss who were killed, wounded and captured after a nearly 90-minute firefight in Nasiriyah, Iraq, on March 23, 2003. Spc. Johnson spent 22 days as a Prisoner of War before members of the Marines’ Delta Company, 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, rescued them in Samarra, Iraq.

For more information on the event, visit orlando.gov/POWMIA

WHEN:
Friday, September 15, 2023
10:30 a.m.

WHERE:
Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, DeVos Family Room
445 South Magnolia Avenue

INTERVIEWS:
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer
Orlando City Commissioners
Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson, Keynote Speaker

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