Nov 11, 2013 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – A weekend of Veterans Day programs and parades in Greene County came to an end under cloudy skies Monday during a brief but emotional service outside James Farrell American Legion Post 330 in Waynesburg.

A cold wind occasionally blew a gust through the area in front of the post home, causing the Legion and American flags to tip over.

But the gloomy and blustery weather did not lessen the message from Shane Cole, who retired this year as a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard.

Cole, a Waynesburg native and a 1986 graduate of Waynesburg Central High School, told those who attended the program that his 26 years in the military was a “coming of age” experience for him. He admitted that it took a lifetime to understand Veterans Day.

“I just didn’t understand what it meant to be a vet,” he said, recalling the 10 years he spent in the U.S. Navy before becoming a recruiting and retention noncommissioned officer in 1998 assigned to Company C of the 1/110th Infantry Battalion at the Waynesburg Armory on Washington Street.

“Let me say I enjoyed every minute of my military service,” Cole said. When he became a National Guard recruiter, he would tell his recruits, “Don’t worry, you are not going anywhere.”

Then came Sept. 11, 2001.

“They wanted to activate National Guard units and that’s when it hit me – what it meant to be a vet, making the ultimate sacrifice.”

Cole said he was “recruiting the next generation of warriors to be in harm’s way and that’s when it really hit me,” he said.

He recalled in 2003 watching members of his unit board a bus outside the armory preparing to go to Kosovo.

“They were going there on a peace-keeping mission, but they still would be in harm’s way,” Cole said. “And that’s when I learned what it meant to be a vet.”

Cole then said as part of his recruitment pitch, he would say, “If you go anywhere, I will go with you.” And not too long after that Kosovo unit returned, Company C was activated for Iraq. “So I did what I said I would do. I went with them.” And for a year he was stationed in Anbar Province, a year he described as “eye-opening.”

“It was there that I saw the military for what the military really is,” he said.

During his talk, Cole recognized his wife, Deanna, who became a Family Readiness Group leader during his deployment in Iraq.

“Veterans Day means a lot to me,” he said. “It has taken a lifetime to learn what it means to be a veteran and appreciate the selfless sacrifices.”