Suzanne Hoff Ogawa has a mission to keep her father’s story alive and hopefully one day have him returned to U.S. soil. Her Navy-pilot father, Lt. Cmdr. Michael Hoff was shot down over Laos in January of 1970 and was never returned home. She was 2-years-old when it happened and becomes emotional when talking about him.
"I have no memory of my father," she said. "And that brings me pain."
Ogawa spoke at a recent groundbreaking ceremony for the new POW/MIA Memorial at Cecil Commerce Centerville in Jacksonville, Florida (the former Naval Air Station Cecil Field). Other former POW’s and military veterans were also there to support the efforts for the memorial. She also talked about both her parents and how much they mean to her.
"He was doing exactly what he wanted to do," she said. "He was serving our country, and that helps me."
The keynote speaker was Bill Acuri, a former Air Force pilot who was also shot down over Vietnam in 1972 and spent 55 days at the infamous Hanoi Hilton.
“I talked about my experiences, and the need to look for those who haven’t been recovered.” He said. “It won’t be just another POW memorial…It’s important that the military women and men know they will be looked for.”
Connecting Vets talked with Ogawa about her special connection to the base. Her father was based there and Jacksonville is her hometown. She said her heroes are both of her parents. Three years after her father went missing, her mother Mary refused to let her husband’s memory fade. She petitioned to have a memorial dedicated to the MIA’s on the Cecil Field base. Ogawa said her mother is the one who created the now-famous POW/MIA flag.
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“My mom raised five kids,” Ogawa said. While doing so, Mary Hoff and the other spouses managed to help raise $10,000 in 1973 to put the small memorial on the current site. “The housewives did this.”
The non-profit, Cecil Field POW/MIA Memorial, Inc., was formed to build a national site for all former POW’s and current MIA’s. The estimated cost for the multi-phase project is around $80 million.
Currently, there are not any POW’s listed. According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, there are 81,900 missing Americans who have been unaccounted for since World War II.
Navy veteran John Sutherland, a volunteer for the memorial organization said the first phase has been the renovation of the chapel on the base, named the Chapel of the High Speed Pass. The chapel recently served as the location for the groundbreaking ceremony.
Sutherland said that even though there are national memorials around the country that highlight the POW experience, there is not a national one, something the organization plans to rectify.
“We hope to be a tourist destination,” Sutherland explained. “And we want to educate people and kids about the sacrifices that people have made.”
“We cannot let our future generations forget,” Ogawa stated, and echoed what Arcuri had said. “We also want current military know we aren’t going to forget them.”