JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Five and a half years, that’s how long Ted Gostas spent as a prisoner of war, captured in Vietnam nearly 60 years ago.
“Kicked in the guts, beat on the head, hungman strung by his arms,” Domask recounted Saturday of Gostas’s experience while captured. “You talk about torture, threatened every day, ‘you will not wake up tomorrow. You will not make up tomorrow, this is your last day, say your prayers.’”
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
While Domask now works to keep Gostas’s memory alive every day through his art, Gostas is just one of many prisoners of war or military service men and women previously or currently missing in action that were honored Saturday morning. The National POW/MIA Memorial and Museum, located at Cecil Commerce Center, held a special day of remembrance.
“There are over 80,000 missing in action since World War Two to now,” explained the museum’s executive director Ed Turner on Saturday. “That is a big part of what our mission here is at the National POW/MIA Memorial. This memorial will recognize all those POWs, and it was about 140,000 of those as well.”
Now, the hope is that with each and every event like Saturday’s, it can not only serve to honor the memory of prisoners of war like Gostas, but continue the push in the search for those still missing in action.
“A big part of it is to let people know that we are still looking,” Turner added. “We’re still looking for the unaccounted for ... and that’s a story that we need to tell as well.”
The museum is also looking now to gain national recognition as the national memorial for POWs and soldiers missing in action, with HR-3057. The legislation would allow the site to fundraise for the expansion of its current memorial and exhibit space.
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
