Left: At the Grand Portage Veteran’s Day celebration James Corcoran raised the United States flag. Top: Bob Carter was the keynote speaker at the celebration held at the high school. Above: American Legion Post 2009 commander Orlando Swader gave the keynote address in Grand Portage. Staff photos/Brian Larsen
A friendly crowd of both young and old gathered at Grand Portage American Legion Post 2009 on Nov. 12 for a Veteran’s Day celebration. Included in the mix was a group of earnest elementary students from Oshki Ogimaag Charter School.
The observance began at 10:30 a.m. with a Drum Ceremony from the Stone Bridge Drummers, followed by raising the flags and the playing of the U.S. and Canadian National Anthems.
Clarence Everson, Veteran’s Services officer, introduced the guest speaker, Orlando Swader.
Swader talked about this being the 100th anniversary of the armistice of World War 1, the “War to end all Wars.” He noted the sacrifices made by veterans and their families, the camaraderie between soldiers from the U.S. and Canada.
He ended by reading a poem written by Lieutenant- Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian doctor, and teacher who served in World War 1.
McCrae wrote “In Flanders Field” on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of a friend and fellow soldier Lieutenant Alexis Helmer. Helmers and a good number of other soldiers fell in the Second Battle of Ypres in the Flanders region of Belgium.
The veterans attending the ceremony were invited to eat lunch with grade school students at Oshki, but that was after a cake was cut and a video presentation was held honoring the five branches of the military that protect and guard the U.S.A—as well as much of the world.
Bob Carter was the keynote speaker at the high school. Carter said he was dragged kicking and screaming into the Viet Nam war. As a 22-year-old who was married, Carter said he did everything he could to get out the war, but when his efforts failed, “I went,” he said. He served 11 months in ‘Nam as a medic and two years total. When he got out, he told everyone it was a waste of his time, two lost years of his youth.
As he talked, Carter noted a young man wearing a red white and blue shirt in the packed bleachers and asked him to stand. “I thank you for that,” he told the young man.
You see as the years unfolded in his life Carter’s experience with the friends he made in his time of service, and the importance of serving his country, became more important, more relevant to him.
He told the crowd that he doesn’t keep in close contact with his mates from the Viet Nam war anymore, “We’ve gone our separate ways,” he said, but added, “But what we shared, what we went through together, they are my closet friends.”
And then Bob read a bit of John F. Kennedy’s 1961 Veteran’s Day speech he delivered at Arlington National Cemetery. Bob added a bit to it, which you shall note.
“On this Veterans Day of 1961, on this day of remembrance, let us pray in the name of those who have fought in this country’s wars, and most especially who have fought in the First World War and in the Second World War, the Korean War, the Viet Nam War, the Persian Gulf War, the Afghanistan war… that there will be no veterans of any further war — not because all shall have perished but because all shall have learned to live together in peace.
Today we are here to celebrate and to honor and to commemorate the dead and the living, the young men who in every war since this country began have given testimony to their loyalty to their country and their own great courage.”
Carter said that veterans who come home now have issues “that you can see, and issues that you can’t see.” Those include physical, mental, and emotional issues, said Carter, and he asked those in attendance to support groups who aid veterans like Folds of Honor, Wounded Warriors, and Journey Home, to name a few.
“If you see someone who is a veteran, simply come up them and shake their hand and thank them for their service,” said Carter.
The choir sang In Flander’s Fields, the band played, and taps and the ceremony ended as American Legion Post 413 Commander Bob Mattson led his fellow soldiers in taking down the colors, the flag ceremony.
As the crowd filed out and the students returned to their classrooms, the words of JFK echoed somewhere in our distant past, words not to be forgotten.
“I do not believe that any nation in the history of the world has buried its soldiers farther from its native soil than we Americans — or buried them closer to the towns in which they grew up.
“We celebrate this Veterans Day for a very few minutes, a few seconds of silence and then this country’s life goes on. But I think it most appropriate that we recall on this occasion, and on every other moment when we are faced with great responsibilities, the contribution and the sacrifice which so many men and their families have made in order to permit this country to now occupy its present position of responsibility and freedom, and in order to permit us to gather here together.”
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