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Most Gratifying Veterans Day - My 61st
11/8/07 (7:36 a.m.) For the several weeks right after Veterans Day 2006 I thought about what a rewarding and meaningful Veterans Day it was for me and decided to capture my thoughts on paper. I consider it the best of the 61 Veterans Days I have experienced since I was discharged from the US Navy in July 1946. I’ve also thought about why this Veterans Day was the best. First I was undeniably identified as a Veteran during most of the daylight hours and was mingling with the public. The citizens were therefore able to and did say “Thank You for Your Service to our Country.” Some of them also shook hands with me. I also played a significant role in planning and executing our successful VFW Buddy Poppy Day during which we collected a new record total in donations to our Veterans Relief Fund. I was asked by my Post Commander to participate in the wreath laying at the Peachtree City Veterans Memorial by playing “TAPS”. Finally and most importantly I volunteered to speak to 3 different classes at 2 different Middle Schools on 2 different days. I’ve concluded that a line from the Prayer of St. Francis best sums up why these activities resulted in my concluding this was my most rewarding Veterans Day, “For it is in giving that we receive”. Speaking to students about my experiences as a Veteran and about VFW Buddy Poppies was a new adventure for me. It was a most rewarding experience as the students were attentive, asked pertinent questions and were very orderly. In the past I have informed school officials that we have in our Post Veterans from all branches of service and from most eras starting with WWII that could be available as needed for presentations to their classes. From a referral I was asked to speak on the VFW Buddy Poppy to a Special Ed class at Rising Starr Middle School on Friday 11/10. I presented a Buddy Poppy to each of the students, the teacher and her aide. I also gave each student a large color reproduction of the VFW Buddy Poppy (6 inch diameter). I gave the history of the VFW Buddy Poppy and its purpose and finished by reading “In Flanders Field” which is the Genesis of the VFW Buddy Poppy. Every time I read this poem my voice cracks and my eyes get moist as I read the last stanza. I also did a “Show and Tell” on my WWII experiences in the US Navy. I showed a 12’ x 20” picture of my ship, the USS Antietam as it was anchored in Yokohama Bay during Christmas 1945 with snow covered Mt Fujiyama in the background. I also showed a couple of pictures with my sailor friends taken on completion of “Boot Camp” at Great Lakes Naval Station in August 1944. I told them about my fascination with the fit of the Antietam in the locks of the Panama Canal. The ship barely fit into the space since the dimensions were set to just fit and thus save several days in transit time while traveling from East Coast shipyards to the Pacific where they were primarily used during WWII. I finished by reading “What is a Veteran” to them. On Monday 11/13 I was part of an Honor Guard from the 3 Veterans Posts in Fayette County who raised the flag at J C Booth Middle School at the start of the day. I then gave my “Show and Tell” on my WWII experiences to 6th grade students in their Social Studies classes during the first 2 periods. At Booth I didn’t read either of the 2 items read at Rising Starr but I did touch slightly on what it was like growing up during the Great Depression. I would recommend to all Veterans if you are asked to talk at the schools about your experiences as Veterans, please accept the offer- you’ll be very pleased with the results. The speaker at the PTC Veterans Day Ceremony, Army National Guard Captain John Alderman said in his remarks that he was looking forward to celebrating his first Veterans Day on US soil. Almost immediately I had flash backs to Veterans Days in the past. They were all meaningless and non-events until I became a member of VFW Post 9949. While Veterans Day is a National Holiday, in reality when it falls on a weekday it is only a holiday for government employees at all levels from municipal to federal and for bankers. All levels of schools from the lowest to the highest are in session, all businesses, other than banking are operating and all stores and factories operate on a normal work schedule. It is therefore difficult to have a Veterans Day Ceremony unless one holds it each year on the second Saturday in November. An even bigger problem is that we citizens don’t know who is a Veteran and who isn’t, so how do we comply with the Presidential Proclamations that Veteran’s Day (Week) is a time to honor, thank and pray for Veterans. One of the documents I downloaded in preparation for my classroom visits addresses this issue. It is titled “What Is A Veteran” and its author is Father Denis Edward O’Brien, USMC. You can access this composition at the site www.alighthouse.com/veterans.htm. It is an animated electronic greeting card with appropriate background music. I sent it to many of my Veteran acquaintances for Veterans Day. I had a problem with my emotions as I neared the end of the article so I didn’t use it in my last 2 classroom sessions. It starts out by saying some Veterans bear scars, have missing limbs and/or other body parts, or may have metal plates used to repair bones or holes in the skull, some have lost hearing and other have mental problems, while a majority of Veterans bear no scars or wounds. He points out that even though Veterans are a minority they appear in every possible grouping of individuals that exists. We are Lawyers, Doctors, Nurses, Engineers, Accountants, Secretaries, Firemen, Policemen, Athletes, Preachers, Teachers, Factory Workers, Fathers, Mothers, Uncles, Aunts, Grandpas & Grandmas. Yet we have nothing that identifies each of us as Veterans. Here are a few pertinent lines from Father O’Brien’s treatise on who or what a Veteran is: “Except in parades, however, the men and women who And finally the last 3 stanzas that moved me near to tears especially the last two words, “He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - As noted earlier I believe I received more than my share of public and personal Thank You's because my VFW cap identified me as a Veteran. Most Veterans were not identified and so your fellow citizens were denied the opportunity to thank you personally on Veterans Day. In previous writings in newspaper articles I’ve stated my conviction that all Veterans should belong to at least one national veterans organization even if you can’t take an active role in its activities and events. If you served overseas in hazardous times you are probably eligible to join the VFW and if you lack the overseas criterion, you are probably eligible to join the American Legion. Contact me at rjkonrad@juno.com or at 770-631-1439 and if you qualify I will process you into Peachtree City VFW Post 9949 and if you don’t qualify for VFW I will put you in contact with the proper persons so you can join either Peachtree City American Legion Post 50 or Fayette County American Legion Post 105. Join today so you can be identified as a Veteran on Veterans Day in the future. Bob Konrad, Veteran US Navy WWII Home | Veterans Day | Back to top
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