GILROY
– Listening to patriotic songs and speeches Tuesday in front of
the Veterans Memorial Hall, Al Schmidt said he felt different than
he has other years.
GILROY – Listening to patriotic songs and speeches Tuesday in front of the Veterans Memorial Hall, Al Schmidt said he felt different than he has other years.
This Veterans Day, the commander of Gilroy’s American Legion had a son in combat in Iraq, fighting on his country’s behalf – the same way his father did in the Korean War.
“He sees his buddies shot up every day,” said Al Schmidt, of Morgan Hill. “He says he’s seen some maimed and some killed.”
Staff Sgt. Kevin Schmidt is the commander of three Humvees in Baghdad with the Army’s 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. This Veterans Day, his father said, “You think of the ones who have gone before, but you really think of the ones who are over there now.”
The Iraq conflict, which has killed 393 U.S. troops (source: Associated Press) and is killing more nearly every day, didn’t alter the annual holiday event in any outward way. Among the singing, speaking and pageant of uniforms, the most different things from recent years were that Mayor Tom Springer recognized the roughly 40 veterans present by calling them to the front of the podium and that four Gilroy High School band members fainted.
But while speakers only mentioned the current war in passing, it was on many of the assembled veterans’ minds.
Thomas Lujan, of Gilroy, saw combat in the Philippines at the end of World War II and was later part of the occupying force in Japan. He winced when asked about Iraq.
“It’s pretty bad over there,” he said in a low voice.
In an even quieter voice, Lujan said he’s not sure U.S. troops should have gone to Iraq in the first place. Hearing this, David Rodriguez – who served in the military in the early 1960s – responded, “But if we don’t do something now, we’ll have to deal with it later.”
Frank Vigna, 88, of Gilroy, joined the Army just as World War II ended. Asked about the importance of Veterans Day activities, he said, “It keeps the people united a little more.”
“It’s good, ’cause a lot of times people don’t get remembered for what they’ve done,” said Boy Scout McKay Livingston, 13.
“It is the veteran, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion,” county Supervisor Don Gage said in one of the day’s speeches. “It is the veteran, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the veteran, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to assemble. It is the veteran, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech, and it is the veteran, not the politician, who has given us the freedom to vote.”
City Councilman Bob Dillon, a Vietnam War veteran, urged people to give special remembrance to female veterans – too often ignored, he said – and those of World War II, who are of a dying generation. Anyone with one of these veterans in his or her family should sit them down in front of a video camera and record their war stories, Dillon said.
“I wish I had done that with my dad,” he added.
After the traditional event, some people assembled in front of Old City Hall to dedicate a single American flag, representative of 100 expected to adorn Monterey Street in about three weeks.
“It would have been today, but we fell behind with the drilling of the holes (for mounting the flags),” said Wayne Cegelske, chaplain of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6309.
Nov. 11 was once known as Armistice Day, in commemoration of the treaty that ended World War I in 1918. Walking to her car after the ceremonies, Gilroy native Frances Howson Vigna, 90, recalled that first Armistice Day 85 years ago, when her father hoisted her brother up so he could ring the bell atop Old City Hall.
Earlier Tuesday, students at Saint Mary School held their own special observance to celebrate and remember veterans. The sixth, seventh and eighth-grade social studies classes also constructed a wall of remembrance, said social studies teacher JoAnn Castori. The wall bears veterans’ pictures and information about the veterans in their families.
Congress recognized Armistice Day in 1926, following the lead of 27 states, and made it a legal holiday in 1938. In the wake of “the most destructive, sanguinary and far-reaching war in human annals,” it was a day to be “commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations.” (Congress, June 4, 1926)
It was changed to Veterans Day in 1954, after World War II and the Korean War.
“On that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain,” President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed on Oct. 8, 1954.
