<b>By Christin Coyne</b><br><a href="mailto:ccoyne@mineralwellsindex.com">ccoyne@mineralwellsindex.com</a>
Thousands of children and others attending Wednesday’s annual Veterans Day ceremony at Ram Stadium were encouraged to reach out to veterans.
Blessed with warm weather and a clear sky for the 27th program sponsored by Mineral Wells ISD and American Legion Post 75, several groups of school children and community members put on a show for the gathered crowd to honor military veterans’ service to their country.
A flyover by the Air Evac Lifeteam helicopter from Palo Pinto General Hospital and two KC-130 planes from the Marine National Guard Group 234 were accompanied by the thunderous stomping and cheering from the many children gathered.
State District Judge Jerry Ray opened the ceremony with a short history of Veterans Day.
After the stadium saluted the veterans for their service, the Travis Elementary School Cadets began the presentations with a song.
Lamar Elementary’s Little Troopers performed a choreographed routine with toy guns and the Junior High choir sang America the Beautiful for the crowd, followed by Houston Elementary’s parachute team.
Helped by the slight breeze, dozens of children in the parachute team waved and ballooned a red, white and blue parachute, at one point disappearing into the giant mushroom and kicking their feet.
The Mineral Wells High School choir performed a rendition of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and the Wranglerettes Drill Team ended the presentations with a routine on several ladders.
Steve Robertson, director of the American Legion National Legislative Commission and captain in the U.S. Air Force for 23 years, encouraged audience members to ask veterans what their service meant to them and to thank them.
“Military service, in my opinion, is the ultimate form of service to your country,” Robertson said.
He also encouraged the audience to write letters to those serving and to past veterans.
While serving in the desert during the Gulf War, Robertson said he was often encouraged by letters and pictures from young children to retired veterans giving advice.
“It was the very fact that someone back home that took the time [that meant so much],” Robertson said.
The ceremony ended with the crowd singing “God Bless the USA,” a release of red, white and blue balloons by the high school student council and a moment of silence for those who perished or are currently serving.
David and Kathy McClure showed up with their three children to support an older veteran friend.
“David and I, we’re both children of vets,” Kathy McClure said.
Hope McClure, 6, said she learned “some people survive and some people don’t” during school earlier that morning.
Emily McClure said she was proud of her grandfathers who served in the Air Force and Navy.
Homer Coleman served two tours in Vietnam from 1968 to 1972.
“I’m still trying to get over it,” Coleman said.
Coleman, who lives in Dallas, said he came over to find a friend on the wall at the National Vietnam War Museum and decided to check out the ceremony.
“Now things have changed,” Coleman said, referencing the hatred many Vietnam veterans faced when they returned. “It wasn’t real popular.”
“It means a whole bunch of friends are no longer here,” Doyle Roberson said about Veterans Day. He served in the United States Army in the Southwest Pacific from 1942 to 1945.
In 1947, Roberson joined the Air Force and fought in Korea before retiring in 1965.
Retired Maj. Delmer McConnell, who served in the Navy in World War II and in the Army in Korea and Vietnam before retiring at Fort Wolters in 1967, said he lost many comrades during his service, especially during the second world war.
His son served and two grandchildren are currently serving, too, according to McConnell.
He hopes the children learn to “grow, respect this republic and do what they can to preserve it,” McConnell said.
