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| Veterans Day speech 1998 | ||||||||||
| Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, My name is Chaplain Howard Flexer of the Vietnam War Veterans Flagstaff and Memorial located in Danielson. I was invited here to speak about Veterans Day. As I tried to think of what to say I would keep going back to the days when I was younger and as I did I would remember that you and others like you taught me about Veterans day. I feel funny standing here. So let me start by thanking all those of you who were and still are my hero?s for allowing me to grow up in a free country. | ||||||||||
| ;Veterans Day is the day we say thanks to those great Americans called Airmen, Marines, Sailors and Soldiers. They did not have warm beds to sleep in. They slept in muddy trenches of WW 1, the bloody beaches of WW 2, the frozen ground of Korea and the rice paddies of Vietnam! Many paid with their lives others still pay with wounds and live with the horrors of combat still in their minds. | ||||||||||
| I myself try to honor them by being a Chaplain and doing all I can for all Veterans from all Wars. I started a REMEMBER A VETERAN CAMPAIGN to collect needed items for our hospitalized Veterans. I use any donations I get to purchase fresh fruit to give out at the Veterans hospitals as often as I can. It?s my way of saying thanks to GOD for allowing me to return home after my combat in Vietnam. | ||||||||||
| I also want to talk about how we as a country have forgotten what these days mean. We now make days like Memorial Day a three-day weekend so stores can have big sales! In most schools the students are not taught about what Veterans have done to allow them to live in a free country. I find that very few even stand up when our flag passes them during a parade if only to honor those who died to let fly free! | ||||||||||
| I honor all Veterans by flying my flag each day. When I learn of a Vietnam combat Veterans passing I fly that Flag at half-staff for that day and send the family a certificate stating this was done to honor them for serving with me in Vietnam. I have put this Memorial on my land so I can take care of it all year not just before a Veterans Holiday like most towns do. The bronze plaque was dedicated on August of 1995 30 years from when I first hit the beach in Vietnam. | ||||||||||
| Again I am very humbled and honored to speak before you. I hope I can keep reminding every one that as long as this is the home of the brave it will be the land of the free! GOD Bless You. | ||||||||||
| Chaplain Howard Flexer | ||||||||||