Veteran’s Corner

Tom Krabbenhoft

I am very pleased to announce a community Memorial Day celebration.

The Fargo Memorial Honor Guard and the Sheyenne Maple Church are hosting a Memorial Day celebration at 6:00 pm on Monday, May 29.

6:00 pm Program- featuring Vietnam Veterans Daughter Lisa Budeau will speak.

6:30pm Picnic meal (hot dogs, chips etc)

7:30pm live music featuring the veteran run nonprofit Check your 6 (It’s a group created to help military and first responders through music).

8:15/ 8:30ish Dusk: Taps and military rifle salute at Sheyenne Maple Cemetery.

Followed by Fireworks!!!!!!!!

We are making Memorial Day a day of remembrance and celebration of community.

If you’d like to donate or help with this please contact me.

I and a number of vets were discussing current topics in the military. Bases changing names was front and center.

Forts Benning, Bragg, Polk, A.P. Hill, Gordon, Pickett, Lee, Rucker and the largest Ft. Hood.  In addition, thousands of ships, streets, ranges etc. will be renamed. This will only cost 63 million dollars; with a zero chance it will enhance our fighting troops in any capacity. The small board that makes these decisions has a 2 million dollar budget.

   When my group was discussing the various name changes confessions on the lack of knowledge that all these were Confederate leaders.

    Never once did any of us glow with pride at the thought of serving on a base named after a Confederate leader. A military person never gets to pick their fight. We rely on the political leaders to hopefully guide the military to right and just causes. We meandered into digging up Confederate war veterans and placing them elsewhere. We talked about renaming states that were on the Confederate side. It was quite the rabbit hole to travel down. None of us were in favor or thought anything in the future should be named after Confederate leaders. Tradition was the theme against the renaming. Tradition carries extreme weight in the service. The salute originates from knights raising their visors to identify a friend or foe. Naval uniforms in their design harken back to highly flammable wooden ships. The shirt can be ripped off quicker than a hiccup if caught on fire. The short hair is tradition due to lack of lice treatments. There are many more examples of old traditions.

Our current discussed priorities went into the military not meeting recruiting goals. We were befuddled at the Navy’s use of a social influencer for recruiting. Hopefully standards will not be lowered to achieve recruiting goals.

Veteran’s suicide, this is a dragon you cut one head off and two grow back. It’s also the most painful topic. Resources and real solutions need to be found. We felt the military has left us adrift.

There you have a glimpse of a Veterans informal roundtable.

Send your veteran-related items to me at 11btwk@gmail.com.