WHEREAS, 1,779 Americans are still missing from the Vietnam War, including 10 from Idaho, approximately 8,000 are unaccounted for from the Korean War,120 from the Cold War and over 78,000 from WWII, one still missing from the 1991 Gulf War and four from Operation Iraqi Freedom, and their families, friends and other concerned Americans still must deal with uncertainty concerning their fate; and

        WHEREAS, the Bush Administration has maintained POW/MIA accounting as a priority of the United States, but budget shortfalls and mixed political signals are hampering efforts, and corrective actions need to occur; and

        WHEREAS, the State of Idaho commends and endorses the national commitment to account as fully as possible for Americans still missing from our nation’s wars; and

        WHEREAS ,the State of Idaho calls on the President and Congress to continue raising with foreign governments the need for increased action to help account for our missing – alive and dead – and return them to the United States; and

        WHEREAS, the State of Idaho calls on Congress to ensure that POW/MIA-related offices and organizations receive the assets and resources necessary to accomplish the principled mission to account for unreturned veterans to signal nations around the world that America stands behind those who serve;

        NOW, THEREFORE, I, C.L. “BUTCH” OTTER, Governor of the State of Idaho, do hereby proclaim the week of September 21, 2007 to be

IDAHO POW/MIA RECOGNITION WEEK

 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the State of Idaho at the Capitol in Boise on this 12th day of September in the year of our Lord two-thousand and seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred thirty-second and of the Statehood of Idaho the one hundred eighteenth.

BEN YSURSA
SECRETARY OF STATE