The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Armistice centennial marked
Veterans Day not just a day to honor, but to remind, according to local veterans who hope the past will inform the present and future
On the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, many communities such as Mentor held ceremonies to recognize and honor veterans.
Formerly known as Armistice Day, the day set aside to honor the end of World War I, Veterans Day on Nov. 11 is now a day to honor all veterans.
The Mentor ceremony held inside the Mentor Senior Center included a welcome by Mentor City Council President Janet Dowling, invocation by Bob Zonneville, Mentor VFW #9295, the presentation of colors, Veterans Day address presented by Andrew Rose, a salute to the dead by Amvets posts #40 and #109 and concluded with the playing of taps by Mentor VFW Post #9295 and the retiring of the flags.
Many, especially veterans, are seeing Veterans Day as not just a day to honor our vets but also as an opportunity to remind people about the service done and the sacrifices made by veterans.
Edgar Wakeman from Mentor was a chief petty officer when he retired from the Navy after 22 years of service. To him it’s about reminding himself and others. Wakeman came to the ceremony mostly to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI.
“I have been negligent and I haven’t been coming before and as I’m getting older I am finding that I am more nostalgic for the time I spent in the Navy,” Wakeman said “It just makes us remember what we went through and how important it is for the youngsters today to not forget these things and also how important it is to remember the sacrifice of everybody who isn’t here who protected their freedoms.”
Vietnam veteran Ronald Samnik who is a member of Mentor VFW Post 9295 said he thought it was unbelievable that less than three quarter of one percent people of the population of this country knows anyone that serves in the military.
“We are so isolated in this country, People don’t go out and they don’t understand what service to this country is,” Samnik said. “Everybody is off to buy the Mercedes Benz or the BMW, live i, a 3000 square foot house, go on in a career and make six figures or whatever and we forget that there are people that paid a very, very heavy price so we can do all that stuff, and I think it kind of does our country a disservice. We have forgotten a lot about sacrificing for the good of the nation.”
Samnik, also believes that by honoring our Vets, it might inspire young people to remember it’s a career opportunity.
“It’s tough to get people to go into government or military service,” Samnik
said. “People don’t understand it can be a very good career. I spent 18 months in Vietnam not getting shot at, and I saw a lot of places I would have never seen if I had just worked a job in the U.S.”
Vietnam veteran Robert Svendsen, a member of Mentor VFW Post 9295, also would like to remind young people that the military is tough, but it offers opportunity for usable training.
“When I graduated in 1967 my choice was get a job and wait to get drafted for two years doing what they want or do the selected schooling program they had where I could select what training I wanted and I choose to be in the medical field,” Svendsen said. “When I got back in 1970, the paramedic was just starting here in Ohio. And I figured, ‘Well, my knowledge working in the medical field and working there in the hospital, I was watching them take care of all the wounded and I gained experience.’”
Svendsen ended up getting a paramedics certification in 1977 and worked almost 25 years with the City of Springfield as a firefighter/paramedic.
Samnik said he believes the main purpose of Veterans Day ceremonies is to honor those who have sacrificed for our country as he recalled two fraternity brothers who served in Vietnam the same time he did but did not make it home. He also believes it is good for reminding people of the thousands of MIA/POWS.
For Svendsen, Veterans Day ceremonies are meant to remind people war is not just a headline or an article on the news, and there are real lives involved.
The ceremonies are to honor the dead and those that served and survived, Svendsen said.
For Mentor Council member Sean Blake, Veterans Day is to remind people of the price that was paid. He wants everybody who lives in this country and compares it to other countries to understand and remember who it was that bought all the freedoms they have here.
Blake said that when he was standing on stage during the ceremony looking out at all the people that were there He was thinking about the ones who weren’t there: The ones who didn’t come back from France, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or the battlefields of Europe.
“The price was paid by some people who never came back again. They actually left knowing they might not come back. But, they loved this country just as much as we who appreciate them do, and that was a sacrifice that they were willing to make.” Blake said. “We appreciate that sacrifice, so we gather here on Veterans Day and we gather on Memorial Day to honor that and to thank our blessings that they did what they did and we have the country that we have.”
Blake said that when he was standing on stage during the ceremony looking out at all the people that were there He was thinking about the ones who weren’t there: The ones who didn’t come back from France, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or the battlefields of Europe.
“Those are the people when I go to an event like this I think about,” Blake said. “I think about the ones who are there and the ones who aren’t there and I am thankful for both.”
“We hear about the one percent all the time on the news,” Dowling said. “But this is a different one percent. It’s the one percent of the population that serves us and protects our freedoms. The other 99 percent of us, we can’t forget the sacrifices that they made.”