LIBERTY COAST: CHAPEL OF THE HIGH-SPEED PASS

The National POW/MIA Memorial & Museum

Evolution of the Chapel of the High-Speed Pass

A group of volunteers on The Liberty Coast has embraced National POW/MIA Recognition Day as a call to greater action. The Cecil Field POW/MIA Memorial, Inc.’s mission is to establish the National POW/MIA Memorial & Museum on 26-acres at the former Naval Air Station Cecil Field, currently known as Cecil Commerce Center. The resulting project will be the center of our nation’s reflection of and education about the more than 140,000 prisoners of war and missing in action since World War II.

The group began their efforts by renovating the original Vietnam War Memorial—now called the Heroes Walk—and the former base chapel, named Chapel of the High-Speed Pass. Heroes Walk began on September 11, 1973, after 16 trees were planted and markers were dedicated to remember Cecil Fieldbased naval aviators who were classified as prisoners of war or missing in action during the Vietnam War and first Gulf War.

The chapel served thousands of military personnel and their families, to include hosting tearful family members as they remembered fallen pilots, until 1999. After Cecil Field closed as a military base that same year, the chapel became a storage facility. Now refurbished, the historical chapel complex is the centerpiece of the memorial and museum project. The chapel will be the home of the POW/MIA Memorial & Museum while the national facilities are funded and developed.

Phase one is currently under construction and will honor all who were lost while stationed at NAS Cecil Field; Naval Aviators, Air Crewmen and others who lost their lives will be remembered. Additionally, the history of the USS Saratoga (CV-60), as well as the USS Forrestal (CV-59) incident of 1967 that took the lives of 134 crewmembers, will be showcased.

The focus of this dedicated group of volunteers is to eventually establish a national memorial for ALL branches of the U.S. Armed Forces to honor former prisoners of war and acknowledge those who are still missing in action. There is a bill currently in Congress seeking that this site be designated as the country’s only nationally recognized memorial for ALL missing military personnel.

We recommend a drive through the Cecil Commerce Center/ Airport complex to see the military, aviation and industrial activity on the former naval base. To learn more about Chapel of the High-Speed Pass and the future National POW/MIA Memorial & Museum visit POWMIAMemorial.org.

This is part of an ongoing series about the many military and Veteran organizations that makes up The Liberty Coast.

Story and photos compiled by POWMIAMemorial.org and Liberty Life staff.