PORT ANGELES — More than 800 people gathered Monday to remember veterans of the nation’s wars during the North Olympic Peninsula’s Veterans Day observance at the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station on Ediz Hook.
The ceremony was marked by performances by a Marine Corps drill team, patriotic songs sung by the Strait Men’s Chorus and Sweet Adelines and a speech by Coast Guard Rear Adm. Erroll Brown.
But it was a simple song lauding veterans that brought many in the audience to tears.
It was written by Joe Dziak of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1024 in Port Angeles.
“So let’s sing ‘God Bless America’ for the veterans on this special day,” Dziak sang, strumming a guitar.
“Some came back in boxes. Some we still can’t find.
“. . . Never forget the sacrifices that were made . . .”
‘It’s about veterans’
“This day is not about me, it’s about veterans,” said Brown, commander of the 13th Coast Guard District, which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.
He noted that Veterans Day began as Armistice Day to mark the end of World War I.
“We are here not just to celebrate the end of World War I, but also every veteran’s story,” he said.
Brown called veterans America’s guardians, sentinels and protectors.
If you listen to their stories closely, they are not all that different, he said.
“For them, it’s about doing their duty,” Brown said.
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The rest of the story appears in the Tuesday Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.
