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Medical personnel highlighted in Vet Day ceremonies
The Honor Guard stood proudly at attention as the sun shone intermittently upon the solemn and respectful group of people gathered together at Mountain View Cemetery on Saturday to pay tribute to the nation's veterans during the annual Veteran's Day ceremony.
As is tradition, the ceremony commenced at precisely the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, with the ringing of the Memorial Bell.
Following an invocation delivered by a chaplain from Mountain Home Air Force Base (MHAFB), Mountain Home Mayor and Air Force veteran Joe B. McNeal introduced Col. Jerry Flyer of the 366th Medical Group, main speaker at the event.
Flyer noted that military medical personnel rarely have the opportunity to remark at these events but that "...our medics are every bit the warfighter, doing miraculous things on the front lines and in places like Balad Air Base under austere conditions where the survival rate is higher than any war in history...."
Flyer honored all the veterans "...who have guarded freedom and this great nation for the past 230 years."
Remarking on Idaho's long and proud military history, he said,"As we go about our daily lives, we often do not realize there are heroes walking in our midsts."
Flyer acknowledged servicemen and women past and present, and the freedoms they earned for American citizens and people around the world with a poem by the late Father Denis Edward O'Brien, United States Marine Corp:
It Is The Soldier
It is the Soldier, not the minister,
Who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the Soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the Soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us freedom to protest.
It is the Soldier, not the lawyer,
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the Soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.
Flyers' speech was followed with the "Laying of the Wreaths", where representatives from different military branches place a symbolic wreath on display and offer a salute.
A gun salute and the bugler playing "Taps" concluded the ceremony.