Jack Goodwin, 88, is a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. A retired U.S. Air Force colonel, he will be the featured speaker today as the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 852 in Lawrence commemorates National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

Jack Goodwin poses for a newspaper publicity photograph during his service in World War II.

Jack Goodwin, back row, third from left, poses for a portrait with his crew during his service in World War II.

As a B-17 navigator who flew in 51 World War II missions over Europe, Lawrence resident Jack Goodwin counted the parachutes of fellow airmen as they bailed out of planes that had been hit.

Many of those men were captured by enemy troops.

“I was one of the lucky ones,” said Goodwin, 88, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel who also served during Korea and Vietnam.

On Wednesday, as he recounted his World War II missions with the 381st Bombardment Group, Goodwin clutched a sheet that lists American prisoners of war and those missing in action from both world wars, Korea and Vietnam. It includes more than 70,000 from World War II who still are missing or unaccounted for.

Today, Goodwin will be the featured speaker as the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 852 in Lawrence commemorates National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

Jerry Karr, the VFW’s post commander and U.S. Army Vietnam veteran, called Goodwin “a true American hero” who can deliver a powerful message about why it’s important for the public to remember those captured or still missing. Karr said the country owes it to captured military personnel to work to bring them or their remains back.

“I think we need to bring a guarantee to them that we’re going to bring them home to their parents or their family,” said Karr, a retired Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical division chief.

Goodwin grew up in Indiana, and he enlisted for World War II and was sent to fly with the B-17 crew out of England at the end of 1943. During his time in Europe, he completed 51 missions.

He served in Alaska during the Korean War, and with a civil engineering degree, Goodwin also helped identify tunnels in Vietnam in the 1970s. After he retired, he moved to Lawrence in 1985 to join his children.

As the recognition day got closer this week, he recalled fellow pilots who died. Goodwin also thought about the horrid conditions war prisoners have described in all major wars.

But he also remembers enlisting in 1942.

“Then, everybody knew it had to be done,” he said.

He also thinks about the close calls, including the time shrapnel sprayed his B-17.

“I moved my foot, and there was a hole in the airplane,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin said because Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam POW, is in the running for president, it might bring more national attention to the recognition day.

“His story was pretty sobering, you know,” he said.