Debt that can never be repaid
Tom Shumaker, commander of Jefferson American Legion Post 954, gave the keynote address for the post’s 68th Veterans Day remembrance Tuesday.
American Legion Post 954 Chaplain Bob Harry offers a salute during the Post Everlasting ceremony, recognizing veterans from the post who died this past year.
JEFFERSON – Tom Shumaker, commander of Jefferson American Legion Post 954, told those in attendance at the post’s annual Veterans Day remembrance Tuesday in the Jefferson-Morgan High School auditorium he trusted they would leave with a message “that would touch their hearts.”
“This is a day set aside by the U.S. Government to honor veterans and yet, to many businesses it is just another day,” Shumaker said, following a brief history of how Veterans Day came to be. “I’m aware of many veterans who have asked for time off to honor their comrades on this day and they are refused.”
Shumaker pondered how the word “celebration,” has been attached to Veterans Day.
“I have heard it called a Veterans Day celebration. Should we really consider this a celebration? For those who paid with their lives, and those who are permanently maimed, what do they and their families have to celebrate?” Shumaker asked.
He said picking out an active service member is easy, especially with ongoing military operations taking place, but recognizing the veterans among us is not as simple.
“Those we honor today are no longer wearing an active duty uniform,” Shumaker said.
These people spent years apart from their children and wives, years they will never get back, and then they came home to become our teachers, police officers, firemen and neighbors, Shumaker said.
As we remain “removed from turmoil around the world on a daily basis,” there is only one person to thank, “the U.S. soldier,” Shumaker said.
“It is a gift that can never be reciprocated in full. Their bodies were beaten in a way even professional athletes will never understand. They have been in conditions we cannot even begin to imagine,” he said. “Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. For those U.S. service members, they don’t have that problem.”
Shumaker reminded those in attendance to thank both active duty and veteran service members each day, not just once a year.
Concluding the Veterans Day services was the Post Everlasting ceremony that recognizes members of Post 954 who have died since the previous Veterans Day. This ritual includes a reading of the names, birth and death dates, rank, military honors, years of American Legion membership and theater of war of the departed.
Among the thirteen men who were entered into the post everlasting Tuesday was charter member of Post 954, George Misher. The post was chartered in 1946 and its first Veterans Day services held that same year, according to Shumaker.
Misher was a sergeant in the Army Air Force., serving in the China-Burma-India Theater of war as an airplane mechanic and crew chief. He taught and served as a principal in the Jefferson-Morgan School District over his 40 year career there.
Misher’s fellow Post 954 members who joined him in the post everlasting were World War II veterans, Army Air Force Sgt. John T. Howes, Army Staff Sgt. George Sepac, Army Col. Ivan H. Guesman, Army Pfc. Mike F. Yankura, and Army Sgt. Albert J. Devito.
The Korean War veterans included Army Cpl. Steve Kramrich, Jr., Army National Guard Pfc. Joseph W. Adamson and Army Pfc. James W. Maize. The Vietnam veterans were Army Pfc. James H. Tharp, Marine Master Sgt. Charles J. “Radar” Halmos and Air Force Airman First Class Ronald Z. Krivitsky.