With the Honor Guard standing at attention in the distance, Bernice Howard, age 94, her hand sheltering her vision from the sun, looks at the Memorial Day speaker Kris Hoffman (not pictured) with Eleanor Waha, age 95, seated directly behind her. The two women were part of a crowd of about 100 people who took part in the Memorial Day remembrance at the courthouse lawn.
“The current percentage of the population that has ever served in the military is sitting around seven percent,” said Kris Hoffman, keynote speaker for the Memorial Day celebration held at 11 a.m. on Monday, May 28 on the courthouse lawn.
Addressing about 100 people, Hoffman added, “Where would you be without seven percent of your memories or lessons learned from adults as you grew up? What kind of person would you be without seven percent of anything in your life? As a teacher, I think of seven percent as basically the difference between a B-minus and B-plus, or a D-plus and a C. Or as a GPA that gets you into college or doesn’t.
“As I sit here and just ponder the profound difference of seven percent, I get a little emotional qualifying these men and woman down to a number of seemingly such insignificance. Then I think about the Greatest Generation, the generation that Willard Nelson and Lou Pettijohn belong to and I wonder where we would be without their seven percent?”
American Legion Post 413 Commander Bob Mattson led the Memorial Day ceremony, calling out the names of 32 Cook County veterans who passed away over the last year.
Before Hoffman, himself a veteran and a high school counselor took to the podium, American Legion Post 413 Honor Guard assembled on the lawn and then Post Commander Bob Mattson asked Pastor Kris Garey to say a prayer. Liz Hall followed with a strong singing of the national anthem and the Auxiliary placed a wreath at the front of the marble monument on the courthouse lawn.
Next a somber Mattson said a few words about the members of the community who had served in the military but passed away over the course of the last year.
These were the soldiers who returned from the service to come back and build the community, some were police officers, fire fighters, carpenters, loggers, some ran gas stations, fixed TVs, sold insurance or were handymen. Some worked in medicine, many were husbands, wives, with families and many volunteered throughout the community. Many were too soon gone.
As Mattson read the names of the fallen soldiers he rang a bell each time he called out their name: Kenneth Rusk, Mike Nelson, Don “Smasher” Wilson, Robert St. John, Willis Schellberg, Jack Schuppel, Robert Dunn, Walter Thompson, Wilmer “Sweeny” Croft, Wesley Morris, Kenny Lovaas, Dale Saethre, Ron Olson, Karl Smit, Jim Dols, Tom Miller, John LaVigne, Rory Carlson, Arthur Friday, Virgil Lindquist, Stanley Suck, Willard Nelson, John Elbert, Donald Swanson, Richard Johnson, Charles Bollinger, Brad Ranning, Lou Pettijohn, Lloyd Berglund, Harvey Anderson, Leonard Goodell and Larry Shepard.
American flags and flowers decorate the graves of veterans at the Maple Hill church and cemetery.
Following Mattson’s tribute, two high school students played Taps, echoing one another.
The color guard gave a gun salute to the fallen, and then Mattson thanked the crowd who slowly dispersed, some to picnics, some to work, some home, some to Grandma Ray’s where a free meal was offered to veterans.
Leaving, Kris Hoffman’s word stuck, “Today is a day that I am not just proud, but there is also a part of me that feels guilty and sorrowful. One of the biggest questions that I know the answer to, but will never satisfy me or others who are still here is this: Why are we here when so many of our brothers and sisters are not?
“The only comfort I have is that I know that my job is not done, my shift is not over, and my fight is still being fought.
“To those of us who are still here, the seven percent I am most proud to belong to, it is on this day that I celebrate the sacrifices of those who have gone before us. I celebrate the sacrifices of the 215 men who plugged the gap on Pickett’s Charge and who were led by Colonel Colvill from the First Minnesota.
“I celebrate my grandfathers and what they have done for my family and me. I celebrate Willard. It is my celebration and internal struggle that I truly find strength and solace in this quote from General George Patton: ‘It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God such men lived.’
“It is on this note, that I thank God for those of us seven percenters who have gone to their eternal resting place. Who have fought the good fight. Who made a difference. And who proudly embodied the sacrifices, the hardships, the struggles, the victories, and the celebrations of what we truly have here in the USA.
“Thank you!”
Leave a Reply