Mount Pleasant Ceremony Honors POW/MIA Veterans as Plans for New Memorial Are Unveiled
Families gathered at Island Park in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, to receive handmade plaques honoring loved ones who were prisoners of war (POW) or went missing in action (MIA). This event served as a precursor to the groundbreaking of a new POW/MIA memorial, which is anticipated to begin construction next spring. The memorial will feature life-sized bronze statues and aims to recognize hundreds of POW and MIA veterans from across Michigan for generations to come. Event organizer Doug Pickel highlighted that many of these veterans have waited decades for such recognition, with some instances spanning 80 years without formal acknowledgment for their service. The ceremony also recognized five veterans, including Robert Warren Fletcher, who was a POW during the Korean War after joining the Army at 17. His daughters, Kanda Fletcher and Elizabeth Schuchert, shared their father's harrowing experience of breaking his ankle during a forced march to POW camps and his eventual return to an "ungrateful nation" after thr...
