Veteran’s Corner

Jason Hicks | Commander United Patriotic bodies
Fargo Memorial Honor Guard

As I write this article, much has happened in the last week. The election and political ads are over. Some won and some lost. Yet at the end of the day we are all still Americans. There will most certainly be changes coming forward.
Hopefully one of the changes will come to our military and our war fighting capabilities. Falling under the Department of Defense is the Veterans administration. Over the last 30 plus years the VA has grown leaps and bounds in health care. We are very fortunate here in Fargo. We have one of the best VA’s in the country. I rarely if ever hear of any complaints regarding care or treatment at our Fargo VA. That cannot be said of others across the nation.
Veterans Day was celebrated across the country. We had an incredible turnout for our ceremony at the Fargo Air Museum. Every seat was filled and many people stood. I want to express my heartfelt thanks for the Vietnam Veterans of America. They took over the program and ran with it. From start to finish the program ran with military precision. After the ceremony we all went to our respective organizations and had drinks and various food items. The VFW and American Legions always have stew. I’ve tried to find the history behind having stew on Veterans Day to no avail. I always get the “It’s what we have always done.” Truly one of history’s mysteries. The AMVETs does SOS, aka chipped beef on toast. No matter what you eat or where you go there is always plenty of camaraderie, our community is large but on the same hand very small. And the support we (Veterans) receive is absolutely amazing.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Fargo National Cemetery and specifically the Fargo Memorial Honor Guard. With winter approaching we switched out our uniforms for cold weather. You see we conduct burials all year, no matter the weather, cold, rain etc… New this year we added some technology to our uniforms, heated vests and gloves. As you can imagine it is extremely cold when standing at attention with a rifle waiting to fire the three round volley followed by the Taps salute. We are still working diligently to making our building project happen. Lots of work going on behind the scenes. We are hoping our message carries on the what and why of the building project.
Thank you and God Bless America.