The New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Foundation will hold its annual POW/MIA Recognition and Gold Star Mothers Recognition Day ceremony on Friday, Sept. 15, at 11 a.m. at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Holmdel, N.J.  The third Friday of September is National POW/MIA Recognition Day. Ceremonies are held throughout the country in honor of America 's prisoners of war and missing in action, those returned and those still unaccounted for from our nation's wars. William S. Blaher, of Flemington, and Barry Rosenzweig, of Freehold, will be the guest speakers.

      William S. Blaher was drafted into the U.S. Army in December 1943 and was sent to Germany in December 1944 with the 106th Division, 422 Regiment.  On Dec. 19, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, his regiment was without food, ammunition and clothing when it was forced to surrender to the Germans.  Blaher was held as a Prisoner of War until April 1945.  He was discharged from the Army in 1946 and went on to establish a thriving photography studio in Flemington.   Blaher's story is part of the Rutgers Oral History Archive program that preserves the personal experiences of the men and women who served on the home front and overseas during World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War and the Cold War era.  At the ceremony, Mr. Blaher will discuss his imprisonment and what it was like to return home to the United States.

      Barry Rosenzweig graduated from the ROTC program at Rutgers and received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves in 1964.  He served on active duty from September 1966 to September 1968 with the U.S. Army Field Band in Washington, D.C.  After he completed his military service in 1969, Rosenzweig spent 40 years in the field of education, most of it with the Jackson Township School District.  He and other members of the Veterans of the Vietnam War and The Veterans Coalition Post #3 developed the “Dear POW/MIA” program that is now used throughout many other states to teach students about the POW/MIA issue.  Mr. Rosenzweig will discuss how this program is used to foster awareness and appreciation of this issue.

      The Vietnam Era Educational Center will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and admission is free for all visitors on Sept. 15.  The Educational Center is located adjacent to the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial off the Garden State Parkway at exit 116 in Holmdel.  The Memorial is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  The Educational Center is normally open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.  For information on the Memorial or Educational Center, call 732-335-0033 or visit www.njvvmf.org.