Multiple Veterans Day programs were held locally in honor of Veteran’s Day on Tuesday, Nov. 11. What began as Armistice Day in the after- math of World War 1, 100 hundred years ago, has now become Veterans Day, where we celebrate the men and women who have served to make this land free.
Doreen Rollag said that at Palisades Lutheran, at precisely 11 a.m., Gary Lyngen rang the church bell 11 times, and they sang “God Bless America” during their church service.
Over at the Legion, they served their Veteran’s Day dinner starting at 6 p.m. and Post #23 Color Guard member Randy Megard gave a presentation on the first world war. He wore the winter uniform of a Great War Soldier, and had all the proper historical props to show the gathered crowd, doing a re-enactment of what life was like for the average soldier in the Great War. Detailed wartime photos, showing the gathered audience how a standard field kit is packed, helmets, gas masks and everything else down to the finest small detail. Mud and blood, living with the dead and the horror of what a mustard gas strike looked like. War and technology unleashed in a way that no one had seen or imagined before. Things so terrible that many thought the world itself was coming to an end, and many people fought all the harder because they hoped that this would be the last war ever. If only they had been right. War sadly is still with us; just as all human failings are carried on to curse our children. But that does not diminish the service these people gave, the freedom that they fought for lives, and we celebrate their service and that freedom it bought us. That was the sum total of his short presentation, and it was quite moving.
The next day at the Garretson School, the students ended their school day with their own presentation for Veteran’s day. This featured songs from the Garretson School Band and songs sung by the student body, as well as a little dress up and pageantry. Afterwards the students went through to shake the hands of veterans who were present and thanked them for their service.
