Posted on 05/10/2003 10:26:50 AM PDT by fivetoes
THANK OUR TROOPS RALLY MAY 17th - LOVELAND
Loveland to Celebrate Armed Forces Day
Saturday, May 17, 2003 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Foote Lagoon Amphitheater at Civic Center Park
3rd Street & Washington
As part of Armed Forces Day, a celebration salute our armed forces, past and present will take place on Saturday, May 17, 2003 at the Foote Lagoon Amphitheater in Loveland, Colorado. The rally will begin at 11:00 AM.
Several groups including the Associated Veterans Club, the Marine Corps League and the Loveland Support Group for relatives of Military Personnel overseas and the Colorado Chapter of FreeRepublic.com are combining forces to honor our Armed Forces.
There will be guest speakers and a reading of Loveland armed forces personnel who recently served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. There will be a plaque to commemorate them and a collage of their pictures. Both they and their families will be recognized as well as all former service men and women.
The Honor Guard will be provided by the Associated Veterans Club and the music will be provided by the Colorado Patriots Fife and Drum Corps.
This event is open to the public. Please bring a flag to show your support for our military, especially those still in harm's way. Reports of this event will be sent to our troops overseas.
For more information download the FLYER. Print some and post them in your town.
If you get off at 402, when you reach 287 head North for a mile and turn right at the first light, which is 1st Street. Go East for 3 blocks and you are there.
If you get off at US-34 go West for the same 5 miles and when you come to the two one way streets. Lincoln and Cleveland turn left on Cleveland (this is where you FReeped with us). Go South until you come to 2nd Street and turn left and go until you enter the parking lot.
Thank you Colorado FReepers.
Armed Forces Day
Thank Our Troops Rally
Foote Lagoon
Loveland, Colorado
May 17, 2003
11:00 a.m. – 1:00p.m.
Honor Guard: Loveland Associated Veterans Club (Music Fife and Drum Corps) Place the colors on the stage.
Pledge of Allegiance:
National Anthem: Lori Depew
Opening Prayer: Pastor Bob Garner, Emmanuel Baptist Church
Opening Remarks: Tom Buchanan, Announcements, Thanks to community people who have been supporting our troops. Short talk
Introduce speakers
Walt Skowron, City Councilor: Read the Proclamation to Support Our troops and give a short talk
Tom Bender , County Commissioner: Short Talk
Phil Corr, (Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave’s Office)
Marti Morgan, (Senator Wayne Allard’s Office)
God Bless the USA, Samantha Ciaravola
Recognize the different branches of the service
Service Music (Fife and Drum Corps)
Reading of the Names of Loveland’s Finest
Jeanette Minnich Air Force Colonel retired
Mike Pappas Marine Corps League
Short tribute to those who gave all in Iraq.
21 Gun Salute, Taps, names of Coloradoans
Closing Remarks Tom Buchanan
God Bless America: Lori Depew
Get the flyer for this event here Armed Forces Day in Loveland
Tom Buchanan doesn't want today's troops to endure what American veterans of the Vietnam War did when they re turned to the United States.
Those service members didn't get a warm reception, the Loveland man told a crowd of nearly 200 people Saturday at Loveland's Foote Lagoon for a rally in honor of Armed Forces Day, which was Saturday.
"We have 75 people, residents of Loveland, serving in Iraq," Buchanan said.
And now Buchanan, the rally's organizer, has made it his mission to show those serving in the armed forces that plenty of people support their efforts.
"My main motivation is to make sure what happened to our troops when they returned from Vietnam does not ever happen to any troops that wear the uniform," he said.
Larimer County Commissioner Tom Bender was in the Air Force for 20 years and in Vietnam for two years and remembers the time well.
"I was raised during the World War II era, and I remember the veterans coming home in 1945," Bender said. "I was in high school during the Korean conflict, and I remember visiting with some of the young boot camp people who were getting ready to go overseas."
He said his "comrades ... didn't receive the treatment they probably should have when they got back."
But despite that, Bender said his allegiance to the United States is unwavering.
"I will always be proud to be an American," he said in closing his speech, "and I will continue until the day I die, no matter who disagrees with me or says I'm wrong,"
"Absolutely!" Margaret Thornburg shouted in agreement.
Several men in the Loveland native's family have served. Her husband, Chuck Thornburg, is a former Marine. Her son, John Kob, is a Marine gunnery sergeant at Annapolis; another son, Paul Kob, is a Navy commander; and three others, Duane, Jeff and Brian Kob, also served in the military.
Loveland City Councilman Walt Skowron, who served during the Korean War, said Americans wouldn't have the freedoms they do without such people who are ready to go to war.
"In peacetime, many of our sons and daughters, husbands and wives, neighbors and friends train and hone their skills to put themselves in harm's way whenever duty calls," Skowron said.
"We must consider the great sacrifices that members of our armed forces are making, so we may continue to have the freedom and quality of life we enjoy." Some people consider themselves lucky to enjoy the freedoms they fought for. Russ Dieterle, a resident of Loveland for 32 years and a WWII vet, almost didn't make it back.
He was just a teenager when kamikaze pilots attacked his ship, the USS Lagrange, as it was anchored off Okinawa. Twenty-one men were killed; 89 were injured.
Dieterle, who quit high school in Rochester, N.Y., to enlist in the Navy on his 17th birthday, was aboard the attack trans- port ship, which carried sup plies and troops to support amphibious operations, as part of the landing craft division.
"It was Aug. 13, 1945," two days before the war ended. "I would have been 18 then."
"And he survived," his wife, Lucille, added. "He came back."
Former Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson proposed Armed Forces Day in August 1949 to honor soldiers active in the military.
The observance, which falls on the third Saturday of May, also was established to replace different Army, Navy and Air Force appreciation days.
The Marine Corps also observes Armed Forces Day, along with its own appreciation day.
Still, members of all branches of the armed forces and the people who support them turned out en masse for the patriotic ceremony, which included the singing of the "Star- Spangled Banner," a 21-gun salute and speeches from officials representing Loveland, Larimer County, and U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and Sen. Wayne Allard.
"Our primary reason for being here is to honor those active duty armed forces personnel that we have overseas today," Bender said. "I think the majority of Americans do support our troops."
Reporter-Herald/DOUGLAS VAN REETH
Dale Parrish holds an American flag Saturday, framing Tom Buchanan at Armed Forces Day at Foote Lagoon. The Associated Veterans Club, the Marine Corps League, the Loveland Support Group for relatives in Iraq and other residents, spent two hours honoring the people serving in the armed forces. Buchanan helped organize the event.
end Reporter Herald article
You should have been inside my head when the first speaker was talking and I looked over and saw Pastor Bob sitting on the sidelines and realized that I was suppose to introduce him first to give the opening prayer. (LOL)
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