Charles City community honors veterans on their day

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Members of the Charles City community gathered Thursday morning with staff and students at the Charles City Middle School and High School to honor and say thanks to veterans.

The annual program, put together by the school FFA members, included a talk by guest speaker Joe Taylor, who, in addition to being the middle school principal, is a 12-year member of the Army Reserve who served in Iraq from 2003 to 2005 as a combat engineer.

Taylor talked about how he joined the Army Reserve as a way to pay for college without much thought beyond that.

“After joining the Army in 2000, I had basic training, I started college. Life was good. Chilling in my dorm, one September morning, our nation fell under attack. I knew, ‘I am a private nobody, in the Army Reserves, who just wants to get college paid for.’ In one moment my life changed,” he said.

“In this moment my life got real. Shortly after that I got the call, and I remember it very distinctly. The call was ‘Raging Bull’ — some code word that they use to tell you, ‘pack your stuff, you’ve got 48 hours to report to duty, get your things in order.’ Oh, man, things got real.”

Taylor talked about the acronym the Army used to teach its values: LDRSHIP — loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage.

“Getting deployed to Iraq was an extreme exercise in my core values, in the Army’s core values. Our personal and organization values were tested every single day,” Taylor said.

He shared a couple of stories, about how a sergeant’s quick action saved his life, and about how a buddy who was a medic saved several other’s lives.

“Later on you’re going to hear a fine trumpet player play taps. You’ll notice what it is, and every service member knows what that sound is. … Today, when I hear taps, I’m going to be honoring four people,” he said.

“These were all members of my unit who gave the ultimate sacrifice, who never came home to see their children, who never went on to have fantastic lives.”

Also during the program, the Charles City High School band, jazz choirs, symphonic band, concert choir and joined choirs provided patriotic music.

Mayor Dean Andrews offered remarks, noting that one of the freedoms that veterans fought to protect was the freedom of speech, but “in the world we live in today I think we’ve taken that freedom of speech a little bit too far. Not only are people saying what they believe, but if somebody disagrees with them they say, ‘no, you’re wrong, you’re a fool.’

“That’s not what our veterans fought for. Our veterans fought to allow us to share our differences, to discuss our differences and to come up with solutions that are best for our country,” Andrews said.

“I’d like to challenge our country to get back to that, to realise that freedom of speech comes not only with the ability to say what you think, but also the responsibility to listen to others, to use these varying opinions to bring our country together, not tear us apart. That’s what I think our veterans fought for,” he said.

Andrews also said he wanted to honor and thank former mayor Jim Erb, his predecessor, for his service, both to the country as a veteran and to the community. Erb died last Friday at the age of 80.

“He spent many years of endless time and effort to make our community a better place. And so we thank Jim for what he did for our community,” Andrews said.

Kaleb Bilharz, a high school senior, talked about why he had decided to join the Marine Corps, including his family history of service.

“My dad and uncle, great uncles and a few cousins are in the Marine Corps, while my aunt and grandpa were in the Army,” he said.

Recently, his older sister, Mackenzie, was a member of the first platoon of women to attend boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. Previously all women Marines had attended boot camp at Parris Island in South Carolina.

“She graduated this past May and went on to complete schooling for motor transportation. She’s now back in California stationed at Camp Pendleton, and I couldn’t be more proud of her,” Bilharz said.

He said he hadn’t been sure the military was for him, but “watching her go through boot camp and the other training periods cleared up the unknown for me. I learned more about the process of what it takes to become a Marine,” he said.

“It takes a strong mentality, courage, and a lot determination. That’s when I made the decision to enlist myself into the United States Marine Corps, not only to carry on a military family reputation, but also to further push myself in the future.”

Erik Hoefer, the middle school leadership teacher, offered the invocation and closing reflection.

Giving examples of reasons we say thank you to others, Hoefer said, “We use those words a lot.”

“But how do we say thank you to our veterans? How? How do we say thank you to people who love this country so much that they would willingly, willingly give of themselves so the rest of us can continue to enjoy the freedoms, the liberties that we hold so dearly?” he asked.

“We’re going to do that this morning. We’re going to try to say thank you to our veterans, trying to show each and every one of them how much we appreciate their service to our great nation. This is just a small token of our thankfulness, but a token nonetheless,” he said.

“We are honored to have you here with us today so we can say those two very special words. Thank you,” Hoefer said.