MEL TOADVINE A rifleman shoots into the air aw a blue baslloono is released in Veterans Park. Several red, white, and blue balloons were released by Dan Slazes of the American Lwegion to remember the veterans who have passed on.

Lehigh pays tribute to veterans

It was unlike any other Veterans Day ceremony held before in Lehigh Acres. This year’s program was put on by the American Legion with representatives from all the other service organizations in Lehigh.

More than 120 people, many of them young this year, turned out on Veterans Park to take part in this year’s Veterans Day program. Each year, a different military fraternal post usually takes charge in planning that year’s services.

The ceremony started as thousands of other services across the county began – at 11 a.m. It marked the occasion of the signing of the Armistice which commemorated the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compigne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, which took effect at 11 o’clock in the morning – the “11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” of 1918.

Although there was no official printed program this year, those who planned the ceremony made sure everything went as it was planned, beginning with the posting of the colors and the raising of the American flag and the POW flag next to the pavilion in Veterans Park.

MEL TOADVINE These are two of the men who marched to the flag pole near the outside pavilion to deliver the flag to be raised half mast before the Veterans Day ceremony began.

Several young children played not more than a thousand feet from where the ceremony was being held, unbeknownst to the ceremony’s purpose, yet some of them may be called to serve their country in the next generation.

Dan Slazes of the American Lehigh with microphone in hand went in front of the crowd and bellowed out commands to veterans who came marching with a folded flag. They marched to the flag pole near the pavilion and the colors were raised half staff.

It was explained that usually the flag is raised to the top of the pole but since President Obama had ordered all flags to be flown at half mast in memory of the 13 American soldiers who were shot down the week before at Fort Hood, Texas, by a fellow soldier who has been charged with the killings.

A group of flag bearers marched from the pavilion to the back of the crowd as their flags waived in the tropical breezes. The temperatures were around 80 and bottled water was passed out for those who wanted them.

Dennis Boland, of the American Legion Post 323, recognized those on the stage. Before he spoke, he asked veterans from each of the services – the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard to stand up while a speaker blared out the traditional music representing each branch of the U.S. military.

Dennis Boland

Danny Buzin of Tampa came to the ceremony and stood up when they called for veterans of the Vietnam War. He wiped away a tear, thinking of the comrades he had fought with in 1968. He had come to Lehigh to visit a friend Alan Stanchi, who had also served in Vietnam and is a member of the local Disabled American Veterans organization.

Several stood as each branch of the miliary was was called out and the audience showed its appreciation with a loud applause.

There was no wreath laying because Veteran Day is meant to honor veterans, living and dead while Memorial day commemorates only those who died serving their country. That ceremony is held at Lee Memorial Park in the spring.

When Dennis Boland, who is also the national executive commander for the nation and State of Florida, began his speech, he started off by asking the question: What is a veteran?

“A veteran is a fellow citizen, an ordinary person who at one significant point in his or her life, made out a blank check payable to the United States of America for any amount up to and including life, itself,” he said.

Men stood up to be recognized as the different servcies were called out that they had served in.

“Our veterans swear an oath to neither king nor state. Our men and women in uniform swear allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, a document encompassing the vision of liberty and the rule of free men under law, a radical concept for some even today, but one that has kept America free and strong and a beacon of hope for people around the world for more than 200 years.

“Our brave men and women are doing that right now and we salute them, support them and honor them. Yet as these brave American men and women find themselves far from America’s shores, in lands foreign to them, they face situations their parents hoped and prayed their children would never have to experience.”

In the end of a 10-minute presentation, he read a letter whose author was posthumously honored by the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge when they honored Private First Class Hiram D. Strickland with the prestigious George Washington Award for his last letter to his parents, which was found among his personal effects after his death. See letter in accompanying box.

The ceremony ended with the retreat (removal) of the flag from the pole and the firing of volleys from a rifle team.

The program concluded when red, white and blue balloons that were across the steps of the pavilion were released and a rifleman fired into the air. The action was to commemorate veterans who have paid the supreme price.

Group at Veterans Day ceremony

A bugler then played taps and off from the distance, in memory of those veterans who had passed away, another burglar followed with the sound coming from afar, as is the custom.