POW/MIA recognition day is Friday
Managing editor
It is just 30 cents — a quarter and a nickel.
Blackened by exposure to the elements for more than 40 years, the coins mean the world to Deanna Klenda of Marion. When she holds these coins, she feels a sisterly bond with her brother, Dean Klenda, who was declared missing in action in 1965 in Vietnam.
The coins are believed to have belonged to Dean.
Teams of military personnel have been excavating areas in Vietnam for decades, trying to find remains of fallen soldiers, including Klenda.
Maj. Klenda was an F-105 pilot in the Air Force when his plane was shot down in North Vietnam. He ejected from the plane but his parachute didn’t open. It is believed he died in the fall.
Nearly two years ago, searchers found the coins among other items that belonged to Klenda and returned them to his sister. The search continues for skeletal remains.
These items — particularly the coins — make Klenda feel closer to her brother. As a symbol of hope and never wanting to forget her brother and others who are missing in action, Klenda gave each child and grandchild in her family 30 cents in their stockings on Christmas 2008.
“I told them, ‘Don’t ever under estimate the power of 30 cents’,” she said.
National POW/MIA Recognition Day is Friday. Klenda is among those who travel to Topeka each year to ask the Governor to sign a proclamation declaring it as such. She made her annual trip Tuesday.
This year is even more special to Klenda.
“This year the recognition day falls on the same date as Dean’s MIA day — Sept. 17, 1965,” she said.
The day serves as a reminder to Americans to never forget those who served in the military, became prisoners of war, and who never came home.
There are 28 Kansans still missing. Among them is Ronald Schultz of Hillsboro, who served in the Army.
Dean Klenda was born Aug. 20, 1940, to Albert and Pauline Klenda. He attended Marion schools and graduated in 1958 at Father Kapaun High School, Wichita.
He was 25 when he died.
In 1967, Deanna Klenda became a flight attendant for a charter airline, flying to and from Vietnam transporting troops home. She did this for about a year.
“Whenever we flew over Vietnam, I knew my brother was down there somewhere,” she said.
In 1970, an organization was formed by families of those missing in action. Klenda is the state coordinator of the National League of Families of POW/MIAs of Southeast Asia. For her, this is a lifetime commitment to keep alive her brother’s memory and memories of all military personnel who didn’t come home.
“This is a lifetime quest,” she said. “I’ll probably do this until I die.”