Jones commends groups for Veterans Day
Published 6:32 pm Tuesday, November 15, 2011
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