Sherry Hughes, chief of voluntary services, said she had prayed Monday evening for the Lord to hold off on the rain, hoping the Veterans Day ceremonies at the Temple and Waco VAs could take place under clear skies.
“He said no … you can’t argue with that,” she said.
Though the accommodations were snug, the Veterans Day program wasn’t any less meaningful for having moved inside.
On Veterans Day, the nation pauses to pay tribute to those who have given something of themselves in serving their country, said Thomas C. Smith III, acting director of the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System.
“Our veterans have paid with their courage and honor and have defended America in the best and worst of times,” Smith said. “They have performed their difficult duties tirelessly, at times with little recognition or fanfare.”
There are many kinds of veterans, having served in different conflicts and in different uniforms, he said. All have shown a commitment to each other, to their services and to the nation.
Remembering the veteran and their sacrifices was the theme of the keynote speech by Greg Schannep, regional director of the Bell County office of U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock.
There are events in one’s life that are not forgotten, Schannep said.
Anyone who has served in the military still remembers their drill sergeant, he said.
“I will never forget Sgt. Ramirez,” Schannep said. “I will never forget coming to Fort Polk, La., from California in August in 1965.”
Sept. 11 brings back memories of where and who you were with and what you were doing, he said.
Four months later, while serving as installation chaplain at Fort Hood, Schannep said he received a call from the casualty affairs office asking for a chaplain to make a death notification call in Georgetown for the first active duty Army casualty in Afghanistan.
“I took that one myself for a couple of reasons,” Schannep said.
The deceased, Sgt. Nathan Chapman, was a special forces soldier, as Schannep had been earlier in his military career. Also, someone was going to be knocking on the door of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Chapman, and it would change their lives forever.
“Someone probably did that at my house years before, as they delivered the news to my mother that her warrior had been killed and her life would never be the same,” Schannep said. “We remember.”
Schannep remembered Lt. Laura Walker. His children were her babysitters in Germany.
Lt. Walker followed in her father’s footsteps, attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he said. After graduation, she was commissioned as an engineer officer and was deployed to Afghanistan, where she was the first female West Point graduate to die in combat.
Lt. Walker’s father, Schannep said, is now serving in Afghanistan.
Second Lt. Emily Perez, who had Bell County ties, was the first female graduate of West Point to die in Iraq, he said.
“We remember today and we will not forget,” Schannep said.
“A veteran, whether active duty, discharged, retired or reserve, is someone who at one point in their life wrote a blank check made payable to the United States of America in the amount of and up to, including their life,” Schannep said.
Schannep read a letter from Marine Cpl. Steven Gill of Round Rock to his family to be delivered if he was killed while in Iraq. He died in July 2005.
To his father, Gill wrote: “You are the man I’ve always wanted to be and hopefully have become.”
Gill wrote that he wished he could feel one more time the warmth and protection found in his mother’s embrace and that while he didn’t die doing what he loved, it was what he felt was right.
“God bless veterans, past, present and future,” Schannep said.
