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The rampage at Fort Hood and ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan provided a vivid backdrop for the annual Veterans Day Parade and memorial service.
Aging veterans from the Korean and Vietnam wars, joined by younger faces dressed in today’s military fatigues and young military families, attended the somber service at Memorial Coliseum, where veterans past and present were honored.
Organizers hoped to show active-duty military members that they have support back home, said Alan Schuette, first vice commander of the Allen County Council of Veterans.
Service members need to be reminded that their efforts aren’t taken for granted, Schuette said.
Speakers included Sandra Egts, of the Northeast Indiana Marine Family Support Group. She shared the new group’s goals with other veterans groups as it works to help families with loved ones serving overseas.
Antonio Arciga, who recently served in the Army, urged veterans groups to work together in lobbying Congress to ensure that veterans receive the medical benefits they deserve.
Adults cried during the ceremony and the preceding parade while children stood smiling with their hands on their hearts or passing out candy to veterans.
Mel Snyder, 78, of Fort Wayne, fought in the Korean War in an Army artillery unit. Standing with a cane to support him, he watched parade work its way along Parnell Avenue to the Coliseum. He saluted each American flag that was carried past.
Tears filled his eyes as he remembered his nephew James Snyder, of Syracuse, who died in 2008 from injuries suffered in a roadside bombing in Iraq. His nephew didn’t shy away from his service or the threat of being killed, Snyder said.
“I’d do it again,” he said of his own service. Snyder said he had a brush with death when an errant artillery shell exploded near him in Korea. “It’s doing what your country needs.”
Snyder was critical of the Army psychiatrist suspected of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday. He said Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect, didn’t stand up for his country as a solider should.
Karen Slattery joined Snyder at the parade to watch her husband march. Patrick Slattery is a medic with the 122nd Fighter Wing based in Fort Wayne and has been to Iraq. She wanted to honor veterans past, present and future, she said.
“They go out and do their job, and sometimes we forget. This is a time to remember,” she said.
Despite blue skies and unseasonably warm temperatures, the annual parade drew a small crowd, Schuette said.
He was disappointed that more people didn’t come out, though the number of parade participants was as healthy as ever. Marching bands from Snider and Elmhurst high schools, along with the Patriot Guard Riders, local police, firefighters and Boy Scouts, joined in the parade.
The parade also included some new groups such as the Blue Star Mothers, reflecting the overseas conflicts that are creating a new generation of veterans. It was a theme that was repeated during the indoor service.
“A veteran knows what it costs to keep that flag flying free,” said speaker Charles Rathsack, a local American Legion member. The Coliseum’s large American flag fluttered in the strong wind outside the marble hall at half-staff, another reminder of the losses at Fort Hood.
Schuette worries about the high rate of suicides among soldiers returning from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The war is affecting all service members, Schuette said, and he wants this new generation of veterans to seek out the help of veterans groups.
Groups like the American Legion can help guide families through myriad Veterans Affairs paperwork and regulations. But more important, he said, they are there to listen.
