JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A grassroots effort led by local veterans to establish a national POW\/MIA museum at Cecil Field will mark a milestone on Friday. <\/p>\n
They\u2019ll be marking the kick-off of phase two of the four-phase plan to construct the memorial and museum with a commemoration ceremony.<\/p>\n
The push began in 2016 with plans to establish a museum at Cecil Field.<\/p>\n
It started with a desire to renovate and restore the Chapel of the High-Speed Pass near the airfield, but quickly grew to include plans for the first national POW\/MIA museum and memorial.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Retired US Navy Captain Ed Turner is the Executive Director of the National POW\/MIA Memorial.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re always asked why Jacksonville?\u201d said Turner.<\/p>\n Turned argued there\u2019s a good reason to put the museum and memorial in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n He explained the iconic POW\/MIA flag was actually commissioned by a Northeast Florida mother, Mary Hoff, whose husband, Commander Michael Hoff, was stationed at Cecil Field.<\/p>\n Commander Hoff went missing after his plane was shot down over the skies of Laos during the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n \u201cThat flag now is not only a national symbol, but it\u2019s really a worldwide symbol that\u2019s recognized. So, that started here,\u201d said Turner.<\/p>\n Good progress has already been made on the project.<\/p>\n The Cecil Field and Legacy Plaza & Memorial next to the newly renovated chapel currently includes three iconic jets that once called Cecil Field home, including an F\/A-18 Hornet, A-7 Corsair II, and the latest addition, an S-3 Viking, which just arrived on site earlier this month.<\/p>\n A fourth jet, the A-4 Seahawk, is expected to arrive later this year.<\/p>\n Inside the newly renovated chapel, there are collections of models, artifacts, and photographs paying homage to Cecil\u2019s history.<\/p>\n There are also rooms dedicated to the plight of prisoners of war, including a recreation of the make-shift prison cell of one Vietnam POW and artwork painted by POWs.<\/p>\n The POW collection will eventually be housed in a yet-to-be-constructed separate facility.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re finishing up with phase one, and we\u2019re gonna move into the clearing and the start of phase two,\u201d said Turner.<\/p>\n There are also plans for a reflection pool and POW\/MIA memorial, which will display the names of the more than 80,000 US service members who have still not made it home.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only to give tribute to and honor those who sacrificed, but also to recognize them and keep their name alive. To never forget,\u201d said Turner.<\/p>\n So far, the effort has been funded with private dollars, but this year, there\u2019s half a million in the state House budget to help kick-start phase two.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also been federal legislation proposed that officially designates the site as a national memorial.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the help and the support here locally in Jacksonville, but then working it into the national agenda, I think it will be very helpful,\u201d said Turner.<\/p>\n If you\u2019d like to get involved or donate to the museum and memorial effort, you can find more information here<\/a>.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A grassroots effort led by local veterans to establish a national POW\/MIA museum at Cecil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,652,32228,32226,77473,77476,77474,5052,969,116,118,117,55599,970,634,8312,77478,77477,9280,77479,77471,77475,77472,628,649,1932],"class_list":{"0":"post-161859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-captain","10":"tag-cecil","11":"tag-cecil_field","12":"tag-cecil_field_legacy_plaza_and_memorial","13":"tag-ed_turner","14":"tag-high-speed_pass","15":"tag-house","16":"tag-jack","17":"tag-jacksonville","18":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","19":"tag-jacksonville-news","20":"tag-jake_stan","21":"tag-jake_stoan","22":"tag-local","23":"tag-mia","24":"tag-mia_memorial","25":"tag-national_pow","26":"tag-northeast_florida","27":"tag-pow","28":"tag-pow_mia","29":"tag-pow_mia_museum","30":"tag-s3b_viking","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-us_navy","33":"tag-vietnam"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}