Ann Floor tells the story of a girl who wore a prisoner-of- war bracelet during the Vietnam War to show respect for those who had been captured. When the girl wore the bracelet home one day, her father inquired about it. When the girl responded, he replied, “Did you know I was a POW?”
“Because she was wearing the bracelet, it opened up the whole story,” said Floor, co-chairperson of the Veterans Day Commemoration Project. She said she hopes the U’s seventh annual Veterans Day Commemoration Program will help unearth more of the untold stories of Utah’s unacknowledged ex-soldiers.
Floor is accepting nominations from the community until July 12 for 11 Utah veterans willing to share their wartime experiences. They will receive special recognition and honorary medallions on campus on Veterans Day at a full-dress military ceremony. However, the program will honor all Utah veterans.
“We have received 10 or 12 nominations already,” said Floor. She feels that the recognition program and especially the community nominations help citizens and veterans alike talk about their war experiences. People with friends and relatives who have served in the military “hear bits and pieces, but never really sit down and hear the whole story.” Interviews for the nominations are sometimes the “first time to really talk about it,” Floor added.
The five-member selection committee will be chosen from former POWs, representatives from the Marriott Library, the U’s ROTC, the history department, the Veterans Administration and the Fort Douglas military museum. This committee will choose 15 nominees, with the larger committee selecting the final 11 people. The committee will pay special attention to nominees who served in World War II and to veterans who have not been largely recognized by the Utah community.
Nomination forms are available online at www.veteransday.utah.edu, and can be requested by sending an e-mail to [email protected], by calling 801-581-6773 or by mailing requests to the Veterans Day Committee, 201 South Presidents’ Circle, Room 308, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112.