Features

Saluting our veterans

By Curtis Robert Tyree
November 7, 2011
414

When our country called, veterans were there. Sometimes theyre in places and doing things they really dont want to be doing, but they do it because our community and our country asked them to do it. I wanted people to take away an appreciation of veterans for the time that they served. The whole reason we did the program today was to recognize veterans; Memorial Day is set aside to remember those who died in service and today, if youre a veteran, were recognizing you. Today was a beautiful day, people could have been outside raking leaves or doing something else, but people came to todays program to honor and show their appreciation for our veterans, said Roy Crawford, master of ceremonies for the Dover VFW Post 3463 Veterans Day program held on Sunday, Nov. 6 at Memorial Hall. I have been a long-time member of the VFW and its an honor to be the master of ceremonies for Memorial and Veterans Day services for a number of years. The keynote speaker for the Veterans Day program was Dover native David Limbaugh, who achieved the rank of Sergeant First Class in the United State Army. Limbaugh graduated from Dover High School in 1990. He first joined the Ohio National Guard before transferring to active duty in the Army in 1991. Limbaugh retired from the Army Oct. 1 of this year and resides in Dover with his wife, Lisa, and their two children. Currently he is attending Malone University studying middle childhood education. It was quite an honor to come back to my hometown and be able to speak in front of all these people that I know, said Limbaugh. What this meant to me is hard to describe, but I would say that it felt like a sense of fulfillment; to come back and have all these folks listen to what I have to say. I chose to focus on the veterans themselves and the values and the character of these fine Americans that served our nation. I wanted the audience to have pride in our veterans, they are a select group of individuals who have answered the call to serve their country, and they need to have pride in that. Its important to remember the values that our soldiers have had instilled in them through their military training; loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, personal courage and leadership. These important values drive our service members and our veterans. They have made choices in life, choices between an easy wrong or a hard right, and chose to defend our country and our freedoms. Also participating in the ceremony was Sierra Sandy, a freshman from Dover High School who was chosen as the winner of the Voice of Democracy contest, and read her winning essay for the audience. Dover Mayor Richard Homrighausen also gave a speech honoring area veterans. The Dover High School Marching Tornadoes were on hand to perform the National Anthem and God Bless America. During his speech, Limbaugh pointed out statistics about the number of people who serve our country and those who have served in the past. There are currently one and a half million active duty service members, with another one and a half reserve and National Guard members, for a total of three million current service members. This is roughly one percent of the total United States population. We live in a country where one percent of the population has made the decision to protect and serve our country. These are our future veterans but they deserve recognition now, like our current veterans.

Saluting our veterans

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