Veterans’ sacrifices honored

As former soldiers and sailors wearing the colorful insignia of their military units gathered Saturday at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, one of them noticed a tattered American flag flying at the entryway in the chill November wind.

“Look at the condition of our poor flag. It saddens my heart. The public has a short memory, but some of us never forget,” said Mike Foth, a veteran of Operation Desert Storm and commander of the 618-member Veterans of Foreign War’s Post 51 nearby.

With America at war, the crowd of approximately 200 military men and women and their families who assembled at the arena for Veterans Day remembered the sacrifices of veterans from World War I to today. Like the nation as a whole, they also offered divided opinions on the war in Iraq.

The Air National Guard Band of the Northwest played the rousing anthems of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard as members and veterans from those military branches stood. When the band played “Proud to Be An American,” they clasped hands. They stood at rigid attention during a 21-gun salute.

A sea of hats on graying heads partially told their stories: Military Order of the Purple Heart. Vietnam Veteran. Rangers, 1969-70. Chaplain – Life. Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.

Three former soldiers who fought in Vietnam and in one of the most important battles of World War II received Purple Hearts from Maj. Matthew Nation, of the U.S. Marine Corps, with assistance from Spokane’s newly re-elected Republican congresswoman, Rep. Cathy McMorris.

Deaver A. Noland, 83, was overcome with emotion as he steadied himself in his walker to receive his Purple Heart. Noland, who joined the Marines in 1940, was trained as a sharpshooter and was sent to the battle of Guadalcanal, an important turning point in the war in the Pacific in 1942-43. During the Marines’ landing on Florida Island, a shell fragment struck him in the foot. Only 24 Marines survived the battle.

Loren Dale Brown enlisted in the Navy in 1960 and was sent to Vietnam in 1968. Assigned to a Marine patrol, Brown was wounded by shrapnel on Sept. 16, 1968, after the patrol was fired on by Viet Cong soldiers. “He saved several Marines that day,” said Capt. Jon St. John, of the U.S. Army Reserve, the master of ceremonies.

Walter Mabe, of Cheney, accepted his Purple Heart from his wheelchair. Mabe, 57, joined the Marines in 1967 and was sent to Vietnam. On August 2, 1968, he stepped on a booby trap and his right leg was blown away. In an interview after the ceremony, Mabe said he received his Purple Heart in the mail about eight years ago, but it was never presented to him publicly. It was presented Saturday after McMorris’ office intervened.

Tzena Scarborough, of Spokane, who joined the all-volunteer Army in 1976 and worked on Cobra helicopters during two tours in Germany, urged the vets not to forget the women among them. Scarborough left the Army in 1983 and owns a computer training business in Spokane.

Scarborough said she was the only woman in a platoon of 40 men in Germany and felt she worked in a “hostile environment.” She was recognized for her service for the first time at a ceremony last month in Oregon.

Some veterans at the ceremony gave their opinions on the nation’s increasingly unpopular Iraq war.

This year’s Veterans Day observations came the same week that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resigned after Democrats seized control of Congress for the first time in 12 years. Concerns over the Iraq war were a major factor in the election, according to political analysts and exit polls.

Foth, the Operation Desert Storm veteran, was adamant that U.S. troops should stay in Iraq.

“Our troops need to get the job done,” he said.

Roger Mize, of Spokane, who served in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Alamo during the Vietnam War, was less certain. The 64-year-old retiree had just returned from a reunion of his Navy unit in San Diego and was planning to go to a separate commemoration at Spokane’s Vietnam memorial Saturday.

“I’m 100 percent behind the military, but this is not a good war. It is never-ending, and we got in for the wrong reason. I agreed with the mood of the country when I voted this year,” Mize said.

Despite any political differences, Veterans Day is an important bond for former servicemen and women, Mize added.

“For many of us, this is the only time we see our comrades – once a year.”

Nov. 11 is the anniversary of the Armistice signed by the Allies and Germans in 1918 that ended World War 1. In 1954, Congress changed the name from Armistice Day to Veterans Day.