Knowing Our Veterans

Since we arrived in the Touchet Valley, we've had the honor of meeting a number of local vet­erans or of getting to know them posthumously through their families. In some cases, we've had a chance to report on their lives and express our gratitude for their service.

In January, there was the Starbuck funeral of Dick Ferguson, the highly decorated veteran of Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. In May, we wrote about Joel Smith, the Vietnam veteran whose ashes were bur­ied at the Waitsburg cemetery on Memorial Day. This summer, we had a piece about Vietnam Veteran Leroy Cunningham and his Rural Green Youth Enterprises project for local youths.

Since then, we have reported on honor flights to D.C. by two World War II veterans from Waitsburg, Delbert Mock and Jim Hansen. But we want to more to chronicle the lives and times of our veterans. Hansen, who has written his memoir with the help of his daughter Karen Yager, has graciously agreed to let us publish an excerpt from his book. By starting our three-part series about his life, we hope to begin recording the history of many veterans and thus honor their service.

We hope it will encourage veterans in the Touchet Valley to share their writing or tell us their stories, whether they date back to World War II, Korea, Viet­nam, the Gulf Wars or Afghanistan. After all, how well do we really know our veterans, the experiences they have had or the sacrifices they have made - all of which we're marking on this special day for them?

In Waitsburg on Wednesday, veterans will be hon­ored with a program starting at 2 p.m. at the high school gymnasium. Ells Bartlow, father of Waitsburg teacher and WP football head coach Jeff Bartlow, will be the featured speaker. In Dayton, veterans, their family members and friends are invited to a special breakfast 7 to 11 a.m. at the American Legion Hall on 211 Clay St. on Thursday. In Prescott, 4-H members will place flags at the cemetery at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, while the school is gathering for an assembly from 2-3 p.m. the same day. When we arrived last fall, we asked around for a list of names of our veterans, but so far, we haven't found one. We know for sure there are dozens of veterans in our community.

We also know they don't necessarily feel the urge to share experiences, which might range from the adven­turous to the deeply traumatic and personal. Yet there is a strong interest in our community to learn more about who our veterans are, what they went through and how we can properly express our gratitude for their service. We also know there are a number of Touchet Valley natives who currently serve overseas, but other than their close friends and families, few people know how they are doing or what they are doing there. We hope that our column, "They Served," will be the first of many veterans' stories, not just about our veter­ans' wartime experiences but about other parts of their lives before they went to war and when they returned. For we can debate the policies that lead to war or the good and bad of engaging in armed conflict, but we should always recognize the selflessness of men and women who risk their lives to answer the call, who may return with physical disabilities or who may sus­tain

emotional scars that leave them forever changed. They are the kind of sacrifices marked on Veterans' Day in particular, but worth recalling throughout the year. We hope you will help us do so. They are the kind of sacrifices marked on Veterans' Day in particular, but worth recalling throughout the year. We hope you will help us do so.