The Rockland County Veterans Coordinating Council again sponsored the National POW/MIA Recognition Day Ceremony last night. The event was held at Rockland Community College with about 150 attendees present.
National POW/MIA Recognition Day Ceremonies commenced in 1979, and are now held throughout the nation and around the world at military installations to remember the 83,000 armed forces personnel who were listed missing or captured in action and to this day are still not accounted for.
The guest speaker was Lt. Irving Schrom, a former POW who was wounded and captured on December 19th, 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge where he remained until the end of the War, May 1945. He gave a riveting account of his experience to those in attendance, to which Legislator Ed Day later observed during his remarks that "How fitting and proper it would be that each and every high school student hear Lt. Schrom's story first hand so they can better appreciate what it took to secure the freedom and liberty we all enjoy today".
Legislators Day and John Murphy, on behalf of the Rockland County Legislature, presented Lt. Schrom the Distinguished Service Award of Rockland at the ceremony.
