Honoring the sacrifices of veterans still needs work

This is from my friend Lily Casura over at Healing Combat Trauma. She went to an event for Memorial Day that was not well attended.


There were many times over the years that I understood military and veterans families are a minority in this nation but even knowing that, when you're surrounded by other veterans and their families, you realize that this is one minority it's a honor to be among.

Rolling Thunder's Ride for The Wall produced, as with every year, hundreds of thousands of veterans and supporters. The Nam Knights ended up with hundreds of their own. They came from all over the country at their own expense and some of them spent the year saving up for this trip to honor the fallen from Vietnam. Financial hardship in a down economy aside, there were also the endless miles of riding motorcycles to get there, facing rain, crazy drivers and traffic jams. All of it was worth it to every single one.

Across the nation there were gatherings to honor the fallen from all wars and most were well attended because people care and wanted in someway to honor the sacrifices made by showing up instead of just offering slogans like "Freedom isn't free" because their hearts are tugged to be there in solidarity.

The event covered by my friend Lily normally would have saddened me but after what I witnessed Memorial Day weekend in Washington DC, I know enough people care enough to go above and beyond to prove it.

I grew up surrounded by veterans and married one. Most of the groups we've belonged to over the years have been veteran related. We don't know any other way of life although we do have other interests, we know our non-veteran friends cannot relate to any of this so we just enjoy their company as Americans and friends. For the most part, we spend the bulk of our days with other veterans and their families and I, well you know what I do because you read it here everyday on this blog. Sure there are more popular blogs with the usual posts touching the masses and what is popular in the news, but to tell the truth given the fact I can post on anything I want, I'd rather spend my time doing something to focus on veterans and the troops. They are the vast majority of my posts because I understand what it's like. My speciality is trauma related but it's the veterans tugging at my heart the most. The way I figure it, this minority should be getting a lot more attention than they do and I'm just doing my part to help that happen. I'm also grateful people like Lily are out there and showing up at ceremonies to honor the fallen as well as being fully invested in telling their stories. She's been a great friend to veterans for a very long time and a very dear friend of mine.

Honoring the sacrifices of veterans still needs work
By Lily G. Casura
Thursday, June 04, 2009
As part of last week’s celebrations around Memorial Day, I went to the presentation at the St. Helena public library on Thursday night, intended to honor those locally who had died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2000. The presentation honored veterans who had lost their lives from both Napa and Sonoma counties, and there were 10 of them — in addition to over 500 from California, total.

The program, which was held in the library’s wine collection room, represented the work of several volunteers and many hours, and was led by Jennifer Baker, library director.

There could be a number of reasons, but veterans themselves have one. Scrawled in black dry-erase marker on a white board in Iraq, one Marine wrote, “America isn’t at war. The U.S. military is at war. America is at the mall …”

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Honoring the sacrifices of veterans still needs work

How a small community can cope with great loss

How a small community can cope with great loss
By Lily G. Casura
STAFF WRITER
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Here in St. Helena, the community is reeling from the recent tragedy in which 14 extended family members of the Jacobson family, including many small children, died. Dr. Erin Jacobson and his wife, Amy, were well-loved by their friends, family members and colleagues. Their children, Taylor, Ava and Jude, were also beloved locally.

And the question remains, how does a small-town community cope with such a great loss? And what local and national resources are available to them?

From the St. Helena Cooperative Nursery School, where parents gathered last week to grieve in tandem; to the St. Helena Hospital, where a memorial to the Jacobson family is set up in the lobby, and added to daily; to informal gatherings of friends and family at Taylor’s Refresher, or Miner Family Vineyards; to Saturday’s memorial service for the family; the Napa Valley reverberates with echoes of pain and suffering and compassion. And fortunately, also, with help for the grieving.
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How a small community can cope with great loss

St. Helenan finally receives honor earned in Korean conflict

St. Helenan finally receives honor earned in Korean conflict
By JOHN LINDBLOM
For the Register
On Tuesday, Jess Torres’ 80th birthday — and serendipitously Veterans Day — his past as a U.S. soldier in the Korean War caught up with him.

It all came together at St. Helena’s American Legion Hall in one illuminating moment in which Torres was presented a long-overdue Purple Heart in recognition of wounds suffered on the battlefield 57 years ago.

It was a proud moment as a spit-and-polished U.S. Army Captain Jack Faulkner presented the medal “on behalf of President Harry S. Truman.” But it was a bittersweet moment, as well, as Torres reflected on the grim circumstances that led to the Purple Heart, awarded only to those killed or wounded in battle.

“It happened in the northeast part of Korea where we were under a lot of heavy attack from the Chinese,” said Torres, a shy man of few words since his Army days. He did not elaborate.

“I can’t really describe how I’m feeling right now. I hope you understand that,” an emotional Torres told a full house of veterans and wives after the brief ceremony.

It was understandable. Torres didn’t know he was going to receive the long overdue Purple Heart Tuesday night. He was unaware of the covert campaign waged by fellow Legionnaire Dave Curtin.

Curtin was motivated to secure the medal for Torres out of respect for a comrade in arms, albeit in different wars — Curtin is a Vietnam-era vet. “I did it because no veteran in combat should be denied his Purple Heart for any reason,” he said.

A lifelong friend of Torres, Al Butala, presented the former Private First Class with a second medal that was also a lifetime overdue — the Combat Infantry Badge — and recalled how he and Albert Betz, another lifelong Torres friend, had gone through St. Helena schools together.
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http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2008/11/17/
news/local/doc4920fcd90d264533203096.txt