Pensive ceremony at 45th’s museum commemorates veterans of all wars

Seventy-three years after he served in the Pacific Theater during World War II, Mordell Trammell spent Veterans Day remembering those he fought with overseas.

Trammell, 93, of Shawnee, attended his first Veterans Day ceremony Sunday at the 45th Infantry Division Museum on a cloudy, gray and chilly afternoon in northeast Oklahoma City.

This year's ceremony commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Nov. 11, 1918, end of World War I, which became a holiday known as Armistice Day. In 1954, the name was changed to Veterans Day to honor all veterans.

Brig. Gen. Jon M. Harrison, director of joint staff for the Oklahoma National Guard, was the keynote speaker for Sunday's ceremony.

"The great war, known as the war to end all wars, started with the assassination of one, and became a cataclysmic world war that took the lives of more than 17 million people," Harrison said. "It led to the fall of four great imperial dynasties, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and resulted in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. And in the destabilization of the European society, laid the groundwork for World War II," he said.

Harrison said Veterans Day remembers all of those who have sacrificed in all wars.

"A lot of people spell Veterans Day with an apostrophe, but they are wrong. The holiday is not a day that belongs to one veteran or multiple veterans which is what an apostrophe implies. It is a day for honoring all veterans, so no apostrophe is needed," Harrison said.

Trammell was 18-yearsold when he left Duncan to enter World War II. He served in the Army's 536th Amphibious Tractor Battalion. He was at the Battle of Leyte on Oct. 20, 1944, in the Philippines. He said his memory of the war is still good, especially on Veterans Day.

"It (Veterans Day) brings a lot of memories to me, a lot of those I was in the Army with," Trammell said. "I was proud to be able to serve my country and to help keep it a democratic government and to make a place for my loved ones to be raised."

In the ceremony were a number of military reenactors.

Three men portrayed World War I American doughboys: Jason Nadle, 27, of Shawnee, Christian Rountree, 31, of Oklahoma City and Mike Buckendorf, 50, of Tulsa, stood in the vintage Yanks uniforms alongside T.S. Akers, 33, of Oklahoma City, who wore a British officer's uniform.

“I think it is important that Americans are remembering World War I," Akers said. It is a generation that is gone. It is an important war because what happened would lead to World War II."

Gov. Mary Fallin also commemorated the 100 anniversary of the end of World War I in a statement Sunday:

“This year, we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the November 11, 1918, signing of the Armistice that ended hostilities in World War I,” she said. “It is fitting to pause and reflect on the sacrifice and service of veterans of World War I, and all veterans.”

Because Nov. 11 occurred on a Sunday this year, federal, state and local governments officially observe the holiday today.

[PHOTO BY ROBERT MEDLEY, THE OKLAHOMAN] World War II Army veteran Mordell Trammell, 93, of Shawnee, attends the Veterans Day ceremony Sunday at the 45th Infantry Division Museum in northeast Oklahoma City.

MEDLEY, THE OKLAHOMAN] [PHOTO BY ROBERT Portraying American doughboys of World War I are, from left to right, Jason Nadle, 27, of Shawnee, Christian Rountree, 31, of Oklahoma City, and Mike Buckendorf, 50, of Tulsa. On the right of the Yanks is T.S. Akers, 33, of Oklahoma City, who wore the uniform of a British officer. The men were at the 45th Infantry Division Museum’s Veterans Day ceremony Sunday in Oklahoma City.