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Marietta City Council has authorized installation of a POW/MIA Memorial Monument at Gold Star Park.
The idea was presented to council's Public Lands, Buildings and Parks Committee on Monday by Gary Ward and passed as a resolution at Thursday's council meeting.
Ward and Jared Smith, who both have been active in other veterans' memorial installations for Gold Star Park, are initiating the project. Civic organizations as well as veterans' groups will be contacted about it in the future. The monument will be privately funded.
The plan is to have a groundbreaking ceremony at the park Sept. 15, since that is National POW/MIA Recognition Day, Ward said. The actual installation will probably be about a year after that.
The U.S. has officially observed Prisoner of War and Missing in Action status of military personnel yearly, on the third Friday in September, since 1979.
Ward is the Gold Star Father of Army Specialist Christian Ward, who was killed in an accident in 2019, and Smith is an Army veteran.