Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
“Some folks are born made to wave the flag
Hoo, they’re red, white and blue
And when the band plays “Hail to the chief”
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord
It ain’t me, it ain’t me
I ain’t no senator’s son, son
It ain’t me, it ain’t me
I ain’t no fortunate one, no
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand
Lord, don’t they help themselves, Lord?
But when the taxman come to the door
Lord, the house lookin’ like a rummage sale, yeah
(Fortunate Son – CCR)
This isn’t your traditional Veterans Day salute, but a rather cynical view of the way veterans are treated in America. Sure, we’ve all been programmed to immediately say, “Thank you for your service,” the second we meet a veteran, but the meaning is rote, devoid of actual sentiment.
In the United States, fewer and fewer people have served, and a growing number of citizens don’t even know a veteran.
On this 70th anniversary of the first Veteran’s Day, America is a vastly different place than it was 105 years ago when President Woodrow Wilson declared November 11th as Armistice Day.
Armistice Day commemorated the November 11, 1918, Armistice that ended the “Great War,” or “The War to End all Wars,” as World War I was commonly called before the Nazis and Soviets invaded Poland to start The Second World War.
Armistice Day was often celebrated with a football rivalry game, followed by a celebration in both communities.
Lander beat Riverton 6-0 on this first Armistice Day game in 1923. Until 1951, the Tigers and Wolverines played on the 11th or 12th of November every year. After that they played on the final day of the regular season, usually on the first Friday in November.
The same tradition was carried out between Greybull and Basin, Lovell and Cowley and Powell and Cody.
A parade, community picnic or other celebration accompanied each Armistice Day.
The celebration of the ending of the “War to End All Wars” fell a bit hollow after the devastation of World War II, and the sudden igniting of the Cold War into hot action in the Korean Conflict. (note, it’s not a war, we haven’t fought a war since the Japanese surrendered on September 2, 1945)
These bits of history surrounding Veterans Day are good for every American to know. Sadly, in our fractured society, very few realize the importance of the holiday.
The ladies selling poppies outside local businesses dwindle in number with each passing year. How many people even know what those poppies represent? If you do, congratulations, if you don’t, bear with me for a little history lesson.
World War I was a static war of attrition along thousands of miles of trenches stretching across Northern Europe. Each side fired millions of artillery shells, devastating the countryside and leveling the forests of the region. The vast amounts of blood, from both men and horses, that spilled into the disturbed earth provided rich fertilizer to the native poppies that grew there. Untold billions of red poppies spread across the ripped earth, prompting one of the world’s greatest anti-war poems ever written.
Here are the opening stanzas of English Captain John McCrae’s classic, “In Flanders Field.”
“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.”
Those mostly elderly women selling poppies at the grocery store are members of the American Legion Auxiliary. As an organization, the American Legion is dwindling.
Wyoming can claim a special affiliation to the American Legion since the very first American Legion Post was founded at Van Tassel on June 18, 1919.
For those of you that blink when traveling east from Lusk towards Chadron, Van Tassel is the last town in Wyoming on U.S. Highway 20 East. Ferdinand Branstetter Post #1 was named in honor of local rancher Branstetter who was killed in World War I.
“Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight,” was a common theme in both the Union and Confederate armies and it remains that way today.
When I think of the heroism and patriotism displayed by Black and Native American troops in World War I, it astounds me. In the case of the Native American soldiers, 12,000 of them enlisted in the U.S. Army during the First World War. They were still officially considered hostiles. They weren’t allowed citizenship until 1924. Black soldiers experienced equal treatment for the first time with French and Belgian civilians but returned to Jim Crow and extreme prejudice back home.
As John Fogerty, lead singer of Creedence Clearwater Revival, sang in Fortunate Son, “…And when the band plays “Hail to the chief Ooh, they point the cannon at you…”
If you’re poor, working or middle class, you die for your country. If you’re a member of the economic elite, the “ruling class” you send other people’s sons off to die far from home for oil, influence or economic game for the elite.
It should madden those of us in the 99%, the “Great Unwashed” that compromises most of America, but instead, we stand for the anthem, wave the flag and defend the nation we love.
My ancestors fought for the lost cause, the Confederacy, most notably at Devil’s Den on the second day of the battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. My grandfather was in the Swiss Cavalry.
In World War II my uncle Chris Pallas served in the Marianas, as a crew chief on B-29’s stationed at Tinian. He was there the morning the Enola Gay took off to drop the bomb on Hiroshima.
My Uncle Eugene fought in the Philippines, and my Uncle Ralph was a surveyor and forward artillery observer in Korea.
I’ve written of my late friends Bud Currah, Don Ryan and Jerry Warner off Okinawa, near Chosin and on covert missions into Laos. Bud survived a Kamikaze attack that sank his ship in 1945. Don was in a leafless tree on a subzero night in Korea when a Chinese patrol passed so close he could smell the fish and garlic on their breath, and Jerry retrieved snipers on long range helicopter missions off an aircraft carrier on the North Vietnamese Coast. Heros, one and all.
My former athletes Brian Chavez, Preston Warren, Eric Donelson, Mike Dye, Troy and Todd Nethercott all answered the call. Brian and Todd recently retired after emeritus careers in the Marine Corp and the Navy. Mike is about to retire as a warrant officer in the U.S. Army. I admired these young men as teenagers when I was their coach and teacher. The respect is even greater now.
I leave my favorite veteran for last. A skinny, Arkansas farm boy that found himself in the bow of the mighty USS Iowa, “BB61” the last battleship.
Luther Forest Tucker was a boatswain’s mate on the Iowa during the Korean War (yes, I called it a war) He traveled the world on the Iowa but spent the war years shelling the east and west coasts of North Korean during the conflict.
Dad told me many stories of his time on the Iowa, but I wished he’d told me more.
If you have a veteran in your family, or one that is a friend, take the time to listen to their stories. They’re worth so much more than a cursory “Thanks for your service.” Take some time and effort and hear about their sacrifice.