JK&T Wings Sets Up Missing Man Table in All 42 Locations

This past Veterans Day, JK&T Wings honored veterans everywhere by setting up a Missing Man Table in all 42 of its locations. In memory and respect of all veterans and comrades that lost their lives fighting for this country, a table was reserved in JK&T Wings’ BWW^® stores nationwide for the fallen and missing heroes.

The Missing Man Table, also commonly known as the Fallen Comrade Table, is set up during special military occasions in memory of fallen, missing or imprisoned military service members. Originally growing out of the growing concern of the Vietnam POW/MIA issue, this tradition has grown from being set up in military dining facilities only to being set up in diners around the nation in correlation with Veterans Day or Memorial Day.

On each reserved table sits a white table cloth, a black napkin, a single red rose, a vase tied with a yellow ribbon, an unlit candle, a pinch of salt, a lemon slice, an inverted glass and an empty chair. Each one of these items signifies the pain and loss these veterans and their families have endured.

“These tables were displayed to show gratitude,” said Jon Grayeb, manager of marketing for JK&T Wings, owned by the Ward/Carmody group.

The white table cloth symbolizes the purity of their motives when answering the call of duty; the black napkin represents sorrow of captivity or death; the rose reminds us of the life of each of the missing and their loved ones and friends that keep faith; the vase tied with a yellow ribbon symbolizes the continued determination to account for the missing; the unlit candle reflects the unrealized hopes for the return of loved ones; the salt symbolizes the tears shed by those missing and their families who seek answers; the lemon slice represents the missing service member’s bitter fate; the upside down glass symbolizes their inability to share in the evening’ toast; and the empty chair further represents the emptiness families feel for their missing loved ones.

“Our team consists of many different wonderful individuals. Some of those individuals are veterans or have friends or family who have been effected by the outcomes of war,” said franchisee Kent Ward. “When this idea was brought to us and we saw how passionate just one of our veteran team members felt about it, we wanted to run it across all of our locations.”