AVA, Mo. — Over a hundred people turned out in Ava Saturday afternoon for the city's first, recognition-day for prisoners of war and missing in action military veterans.
The day of remembrance started at the Ava Square Gazebo with a proclamation and black and white balloons released to the sky. A silent Remembrance Walk then led the crowd to the cemetery.
In Missouri, there's 139 soldiers missing in action and 39 POWs. Ava has two soldiers still MIA. At the cemetery, a wreath was laid at the base of Ava's memorial.
"What we did Saturday is paying them respect and telling them we still care," Connie Lansdown, the Patriotic Chairman for VFM Post 5993 in Ava said. "We remember and we love, and we pray and hope they still come home... We always have hope."
