Three local MIA veterans to be honored

• During the recent Clifton ISD Board of Education’s regular March 2024 meeting, Clifton High School English teacher Gaye Lynn Seawright informed the board members about the upcoming memorial her students will be participating in honoring three veterans missing-in-action from Bosque County. Nathan Diebenow | The Clifton Record

The Clifton High School Freshman English honor classes and Project Recover will hold a memorial and fundraiser for three special veterans on Sunday, May 5, at 2 p.m. at the Clifton ISD Performing Arts Center.

The public is invited to attend the event that honors three veterans from Bosque County who were missing in action during World War II.

The three veterans are S. Sargent John Fletcher Coston (Army Air Force), Seaman 1st Class Robert H. Walsleben (Navy Reserves), and S. Sargent Roland Zander (Army Air Corps).

The event is organized by Gaye Lynn Seawright, a Gold Star MIA family member along with her Clifton High School Freshman English honor classes.

Seawright’s students are working on articles, posters, and every other facet of event production for this memorial ceremony.

“I think you’re going to be very proud of your English Honors students. They’re working diligently. They’re good little patriots,” Seawright recently told the Clifton ISD Board of Education during its regular March meeting.

In addition, a screening of the fulllength documentary “To What Remains” will be shown to educate the public on the work of Project Recover and its impact on families of veterans missing in action (MIA).

According to its website, Project Recover is the only non-governmental organization (NGO) with full vertical capabilities in the POW/MIA recovery space, which includes operational missions in both underwater and land environments.

For over 30 years, the group has been the nation’s leading citizen-led, nonprofit organization to search, locate, document, recover, and repatriate the over 81,500 American service members missing in action and to bring recognition and closure to the estimated 5,000,000 MIA Gold Star family members.

Project Recover has completed over 75 missions in 21 countries, discovered and documented more than 75 aircraft associated with MIAs, developed a growing database of more than 700 cases associated with more than 3,000 MIAs, accounted for over 80 missing-inaction service members, and have helped to bring home 17 American heroes.

The May 5 event will feature the local Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion groups, the Bosque County Sheriff’s Department, area first responders, along with members of the current U.S. military and elected officials.

To register, email gayelynn. seawright@cliftonisd. org or michellle@projectrecover.org.

For more information about Project Recover, visit www. projectrecover.org/ about/.