Dear Editor:

I got a call last Friday morning, Veterans Day, from a 94 year old World War II 

combat veteran who wanted to know if there was an observance in Greenville. 

I told him I did not know of one. I commend Fort Dale Academy for its 

observance of Veterans Day and I commend the members the 

Civitan Club for putting out the flags. 

I commend the Lions Club for its outstanding observance of Memorial Day 

and getting the World War II monument in place. 

I didn’t know last Memorial Day when I walked with Leo Jones 

in the Honor Walk that it would be his last one. 

I remember Veterans Day observances that included a parade, bands, 

National Guard members marching, Boy & Girl Scouts, floats, hats off, hands 

over hearts and silence when Old Glory passed by. 

I remember Mr. William Crenshaw in in his World War I uniform 

marching in a parade and Messrs. Calvin Poole and Jim Herbert 

riding in a convertible. 

I wonder if we had lost World War II if we would be speaking 

German and pressing “one” for English. How much would 

we be paying for gas now if Sadam Hussein had gone through Kuwait and occupied Saudi Arabia? 

Citizen soldiers from Greenville helped stop Sadam 

Hussein in operation Desert Storm. I use the following from an

anonymous source: “A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, 

wrote a blank check made payable to The United States of America for an 

amount of 'up to and including my life.’” 

That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country 

who no longer understand it. I hope there will be a proper observance of 

Veterans Day in Greenville in 2012. 

-Charles W. Jones 

Greenville