The football game at Hillsboro between the Hawks and Festus on Friday has been designated a POW-MIA game by the R-3 School District.
Before the game, Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie will be honored. Blassie, a St. Louis University High graduate, was killed in action in South Vietnam in May of 1972 when the plane he was piloting was shot down by enemy fire. His remains were not identified for years and initially he was laid to rest at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Va.
At the urging of the Blassie family, the Department of Defense exhumed Michael’s remains in May of 1998 and DNA testing positively identified him. He was reinterred at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis in July of that year. Some of Blassie’s family members, including his sister Patricia Blassie, will be in attendance on Friday.
The ceremony starts at 5:30 p.m. when Hillsboro’s band will play the national anthem and there will be a description of the POW-MIA museum at Jefferson Barracks and explanation of the POW-MIA program at Hillsboro. At 6 p.m. a flyover by a military aircraft is scheduled with a moment of silence and the performance of Taps by Jefferson Barracks bugler Jack Poitras to follow. Kickoff for the game is 7:30 p.m.