“We are commemorating the service of veterans of all wars,” Tom Gregoire, commander of the General Buckner American Legion Post 16, said following the annual Veterans Day parade on Wednesday.
Despite the cold rain, dozens of local veterans from the Homer Legion and Anchor Point’s Virl “Pa” Haga VFW Post 10221 gathered in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge visitor center parking lot alongside auxiliary members, members of Homer’s Elks and Emblem clubs, Homer’s Civil Air Patrol, and local and state leaders. In a collective speech, Post 16 representatives urged those attending to unite for a common good.
“We recognize service to our country and our cause does not end with the termination of military service…. Out of blood and sweat, we learned the purpose of sacrifice, tolerance, bravery and discipline. In our continuing quest for the honorable world peace, we must cultivate these virtues,” Gregoire said.
Legion Auxiliary President Beth Anderson recognized the role and sacrifices of service members’ families and continued Gregoire’s stance on world peace.
“While the honors of the battlefield may not have been our experience, we have lived the terrifying loneliness created to answer an aggressor’s challenge. In waging war, we have moved forward with a unity of purpose which made us strong, forgetting pettiness, egotism and pride,” she said.
“In our constant quest for an honorable world peace, there is a need for unity of purpose if we truly are to move toward a brighter tomorrow.”
Adam Greenwald, senior member of the Homer Civil Air Patrol, called on the public to honor the selfless ones — “the heroes of science,” public servants, educators and veterans over “the seeker after profit, power or position.”
“Let us strive to see the same spirit of self-sacrifice cultivated in peace as has been exhibited in war. It behooves us to rear new standards of success, to inspire youth in peace as youth was inspired in war,” he said.
Post 16 adjutant Patricia Frank said the similarity of uniform and the common sharing of danger and suffering in wartime creates a sense of tolerance that humankind must hold onto in peacetime.
“In tolerance there is progress, progress toward a better and happier world,” she said.
Scott Bottenfield, a member of both the Legion Post 16 and VFW Post 10221, again called for courage born from war to be carried over into times of peace.
“We can reach new heights of civilization and opportunity for the men and women of this nation if we have the courage to expect and work for a better way of life,” he said. “The bravery that fights for political, social, economic and spiritual gains may be more difficult to practice, may be unsung when achieved, but is all the more worth striving for.”
Post 16 member Larry Peppers spoke of how the discipline practiced by those in service to the military may be transferred to regular citizens in pursuit of peace.
“That is obedience to the laws we ourselves make — the voluntary discipline of citizenship. Under our system of government, we may change the laws by majority rule. We may persuade our neighbors to new theories or new courses,” he said. “We must not be unmindful, either, of the conclusions of other peoples with whom we have joined in the quest for an honorable world peace.”
Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, acting as chaplain, recited a prayer for those attending the post-parade gathering.
The ceremony concluded with the playing of Taps.
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