The teenage keynote speaker at the last of three Memorial Day observances conducted in Columbus asked older audience members to help teach younger generations the same lessons about sacrifice that he has learned from veterans he’s met.
Eli Edwards, a Columbus Signature Academy – New Tech High School senior who has been accepted at the U.S. Air Force Academy, said members of his generation have not experienced anything that makes them value and appreciate the things they have.
“We haven’t lived through a Great Depression, a world war or a ‘Red Scare,'” he said Monday, on the lawn near the Bartholomew County Memorial for Veterans in downtown Columbus.
The three separate Memorial Day ceremonies that the city conducts annually are intended to serve the purpose Edwards mentioned. Each is distinct in how they honor those in the military who sacrificed their lives, but all are about remembrance.
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9 a.m. – Robert N. Stewart Bridge
Attended by more than 30 people, the city’s first ceremony involved the tossing of rose petals into East Fork White River from the Robert N. Stewart Bridge, downtown.
Traditionally, few words are spoken at this this observance. Organized by members of the auxiliaries of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign War organizations, the ceremony includes one cannon shot followed by a 21-gun salute and the playing of taps, before individuals toss their petals into the water.
Although it is normally conducted to commemorate Navy personnel buried at sea, Norman Ford Sr. of Columbus was thinking about his older brother who died while pinned down in the man-made earthen hedgerows of France during World War II.
Morris R. Ford was killed 30 days after arriving in Normandy following the June 1944 D-Day invasion of Europe, his younger brother said.
Although it has been 74 years since his death, Norman Ford, who served in the U.S. Army from 1960 to 1966, said he still maintains a shelf in his living room dedicated to the memory of his older brother.
“I think about him every day,” Ford said. “I was only 7 years old when he died, but I do remember him. I’ll never forget him — and one day, I’ll be with him.”
10 a.m. – Garland Brook Cemetery
With more than 3,000 veterans buried in Garland Brook Cemetery, the ceremony conducted there annually since 1972 is designed to be more religious in substance.
But other than focusing solely on those who have died in service, AMVETS Commander Rick Caldwell also asked the 35 people in attendance to provide support for veterans who couldn’t properly adjust back to civilian life, and found themselves in jail or prison.
“They made a mistake, but we believe all of them are going to be rehabilitated and released back into society,” Caldwell said. “We want to help them with their benefits and jobs to give them the opportunity to get a little bit better off than when they went in.”
On March 17, AMVETS swore in as members 31 honorably discharged veterans serving time at the New Castle Correctional Facility, Caldwell said.
As taps was played, Bartholomew County Veterans Honor Guard member David Blair collapsed from what was believed to be a combination of dehydration and heat exhaustion.
Blair, who is in his early 80s, was checked by emergency medical technicians before he was sent home.
11 a.m. – Veteran’s Memorial
Due to the glaring sun and warm temperatures, many of the estimated 150 people who attended the traditional community ceremony arrived early to seek shade from the trees northwest of the Bartholomew County Memorial for Veterans in Columbus.
Edwards, who will graduate on Friday, told the crowd he might be the youngest person ever invited to be keynote speaker for the annual ceremony.
He acknowledged his youth stands in contrast to last year’s speaker: World War II pilot John C. Walter, who died Dec. 12 at the age of 96.
Edwards, who met many older veterans while volunteering at the Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum, said Walter taught him how war can “take away your innocence in a heartbeat” before his passing.
Another recently-passed veteran, former World War II POW Gustav Potthoff, taught Edwards how forgiveness is necessary to find happiness, while one-time B-17 turret gunner Jim Peters taught him the value of humility and experience, Edwards said.
“The only members of my generation who understand this country’s good fortune are those who have served and sacrificed for our country in our fight against extremism,” Edwards said.
Sacrifice was evident in different ways among those who attended.
As a woman in the front row covered her face with her hands to hide her tears, men wearing clothing to delineate their service appeared deep in reflection as they stared either down at the ground or off into space.
Two Gold Star mothers, Kimberly Thompson of Nashville and Deb Kleinschmidt of Columbus, were among those who laid wreaths at the memorial.
Thompson was the mother of U.S. Army Sgt. Jonathon Hunter, killed Aug. 2 in an attack on a NATO convoy in southern Afghanistan. Kleinschmidt was the mother of Marine Sgt. Jeremy McQueary, who died in Afghanistan in 2010.
As the wreaths were laid, the volleys were fired and taps was played, Willis Bahnsen’s thoughts were mostly on his father, a World War II veteran, as well as his son, a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
But Bahnsen also said he was also thinking about Second Lt. Richard Pershing, who was in the U.S. Army’s Officers Candidates School with him in 1966.
Although the grandson of World War I Gen. John J. Pershing had poor eyesight and was assigned into a non-combat unit, Richard Pershing asked to be placed into a combat infantry division in Vietnam, Bahnsen said.
Pershing got his wish, and was killed in action in February 1968. It was a sacrifice that Bahnsen said he believes should have set an example since the draft ended in 1973.
“Every person should serve their country in some way,” Bahnsen said.
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12,132 Hoosiers have been killed in major military conflicts over the last 100 years.
World War II (1941-1945): 9,549
Korea (1950-1953): 921
Vietnam (1955-1975): 1,534
Iraq (2003-2007): 94
Afghanistan (2001-present): 34
— Source: U.S. Department of Defense
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