Local Filmmaker Wants Americans To Never Forget The Soldiers Who Didn't Come Home

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — This is the time to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

But many of those man and women never returned home.

CBS2's Cristy Fajardo meets the local filmmaker who wants to make sure those soldiers -- the ones who remain MIA -- are never forgotten.

"There's a shot of a lady in a cemetery," says Richard Jellerson, "and the chairs around her are empty. She's all by herself. I think every American for a hundred miles should have been standing there next to her."

Sometimes what is missing in an image is more powerful than what is there. It's this video of an Afghan war widow that Jellerson says now fuels his work.

Jellerson is an Arrowhead resident and Vietnam War pilot.

"We got shot up but never shot down," he says.

More than 80,000 servicemen and women remain unaccounted for and MIA.

Jellerson wants to create film projects that will allow us never to forget their sacrifice.

For the last two years, he has spent tens of thousands of dollars of his own money to try to complete "A Solemn Promise."

"I feel like I have a duty to those guys," he says.

He says he wants the families of all those soldiers who are MIA to know people care.

The American Legion Hollywood Post 43 is spearheading the effort to raise money so Jellerson can complete "A Solemn Promise."

For more information on how you can donate, click here.