BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS—Around 200 Lake Region residents attended the Wreaths Across America ceremony at the Keystone Heights Cemetery Saturday at noon.
Mayor Karen Lake welcomed the crowd and introduced the participants in the ceremony, which concluded with a wreath and a rose placed at crosses representing each branch of the U.S. military.
After the commemoration, attendees spread out across the facility and placed wreaths on the graves of the over 500 veterans buried there.
Over 81,000 still missing
Pam Stoppelbein, a U.S. Merchant Marine veteran, paid tribute to prisoners of war and service members missing in action. She told the crowd that as of Dec. 15, 81,492 American service members were still missing in action.
“Half of them is presumed lost at sea,” she said.
Stoppelbein said that according to government data, it is still possible to recover the remains of 40,000 missing service members.
“These men and women deserve to be found and returned to American soil,” she said, “to give their loved ones closure, and where they can be remembered and honored as the heroes that they are.”
The former merchant marine added that 21,118 remain missing from Europe and 48,568 from the Indo-Pacific region.
Stoppelbein concluded by giving her audience recent news from the search for missing service members.
She said that on Dec. 1, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for the last U.S. prisoners of war in Lithuania, and one month prior, five crew members from a lost aircraft downed over the Adriatic Sea were recovered.
“On November 22nd, searchers found five World War II-era US bombers in the waters off Croatia,” she said. “They crashed into the Adriatic Sea, and 23 are still missing from that crew.”
Stoppelbein also mentioned the story of Sharon Estill Taylor. The 77-year-old used love letters between her parents, research at the Library of Congress, military historians and a government excavation team to track down her father’s remains.
Shannon Estill’s plane was shot down by German anti-aircraft fire over Elsing, Germany, in 1945. In 2006 DNA tests confirmed that Taylor had fulfilled a promise made to her grandmother when Taylor was seven years old that she would find her father and bring him home.
Remembering Joan Jones
Master of Ceremonies Tina Bullock read a tribute to Joan Jones, who brought Wreaths Across America to Keystone Heights.
Jones died in October at the age of 95.
She also founded the Veterans Memorial Pathway at the cemetery.
“She was short in stature but a giant among men and women,” Bullock said, “feisty and determined for this great cause.”
“People didn’t say no to Joan,” Bullock added, “and the one day I tried, she didn’t forget and reminded me many times, too.”
Bullock said that in addition to laying wreaths honoring each branch of the military, a single rose would be placed with each wreath in honor of the Australian native and World War II war bride.
Hearts for veterans, darts to politicians
Retired Marine and former Clay County Commissioner Gayward Hendry gave the keynote address.
Hendry began by quoting Daniel Webster: “I was born an American. I will live as an American. I shall die as an American, and I intend to perform those duties incumbent upon me in that manner with absolute disregard for personal consequences. No man can suffer too much or fall too soon if he falls in the defense of his nation and the Constitution.”
The retired Marine added that there is a little of Daniel Webster in each of the approximately 500 veteran graves at the Keystone Cemetery.
“History tells us that liberty is never free,” he said, “every generation has to make a down payment and sacrifice for its sake.”
Hendry said that America’s military strength, freedom and prosperity come from the blood, tears and sacrifices of past uniformed heroes.
Hendry then brought in George Washington to emphasize the importance of remembering and honoring those who served.
“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation,” said Hendry, quoting the first U.S. president.
“That’s the message we need to be sending to our youth,” he continued, “and I think by your attendance this morning, we’ve taken a big step in that direction.”
“Let us remember that the American people, for the most part, sleep safely at night because there are still warriors that will go forth and kill those people that would like to kill us,” Hendry said.
The former Marine declared that the American service member is unbeatable.
“I fully believe that,” he said. “They go forth as lions during war and as Good Samaritans during peace. They’ve got what it takes, and with that, we should be able to give them everything they need. Pray for them every time they need prayers and render to them a huge thank you that many or maybe even none will ever receive.”
He had less kind words for the nation’s political leadership.
“Socialists, incompetence, prevaricators, lack of pride in the America of our founding fathers,” he said of politicians. “Shunning our traditions, our heritage, our military, our Constitution, and our God.”
“It’s not the past or present veterans and fallen warriors that are the cause of our nation’s woes,” he added. “We know where to look. We know the cause. You watch TV. You read the news. The American people are not as stupid as some of the politicians would think we are.”
Hendry said the best hope for preserving and restoring democracy is the American veteran.
“The veteran whom we came here to honor today will be the lone sentinel and lone warrior that will slow, stop, and reverse this insidious and treacherous movement,” he said, “and return us to what our Lord God Almighty intended: one nation under God.”
