Committee says no to POW-MIA flag at war memorial

NEWBURGH, Ind. – A group of veterans is pushing for a POW-MIA flag to be flown over a proposed war memorial despite a committee’s refusal to include it as part of the project.\nVeterans and their supporters plan to ask the Newburgh Town Council to override the committee’s refusal to include the flag, which honors prisoners of war and soldiers who went missing in action during the Vietnam War.\n“One of the things about veterans is that we don’t give up easy,” said Jim Wilkins. “We want to make sure those (POW-MIA) veterans are remembered, too.”\nA six-member committee that was appointed by the council split evenly last week, effectively killing a proposal to fly the flag at the new monument.\nBut Shari Sherman, one of the three committee members who voted against the flag display, said the monument is intended to honor all veterans without regard to any particular war or group.\n“To open it up to any group indicates that we are looking at other groups, too,” she said. “They certainly are a segment of the veterans, and that is a worthy group, but not all veterans were POWs or MIAs. To select out any group opens it up for other groups to say, ‘My group is just as worthy or has just as many members.’”\nThe monument is planned for a small triangle of land owned by the town at Indiana 261 and Bell Road. The project has been in development for almost two years and is being funded with donations and through the sale of commemorative bricks.