A solemn need to honor all veterans combined with a bright fall day to fill the All Veterans Memorial Saturday morning for a tribute to those who served in the nation's armed forces.
With a color guard from all services and the Civil Air Patrol standing at attention throughout the 45-minute ceremony, spectators heard speakers talk about the sacrifices that had been made in the name of freedom.
Members of the Emporia High School band and the Sweet Adelines chorus provided music prior and Jim Akers, American Legion Post 5 Chaplain, gave the invocation.
Speakers included Lee Stolfus and Ron Whitney, a Vietnam veteran who read "In Flanders Field," a poem by Lt. Col. John McCrae, MD, who served in the Canadian Army during World War I. McCrae wrote the poem in honor of his friend, Alexis Hellmer, who was killed during the war and buried in Flanders Field.
"Sometimes we forget why we're here -- and a lot of times, people who aren't here forget why we're here," said Stolfus, who is a past vice commander of the National American Legion.
The keynote speaker for the ceremony, 76th District Peggy Mast of Emporia, first was recognized for her efforts to assist veterans. Mast had introduced legislation to give $2 million in unclaimed Lottery winnings to the Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs to help with veterans' health issues. The legislature instead divided the money among several recipients, and dedicated a scratch ticket game to veterans, which brought in $450,000 for the veterans. She also introduced a bill, at the request of an Olpe resident, that gives armed forces veterans a holiday on Veterans Day.
Mast thanked the veterans for their continued willingness to protect "our streets, our communities, our families" while they are serving and when they return.
"So often, I see our patriots come back from service and re-enlist again," Mast said. "As Americans, we have more freedoms than we are able to understand."
Veteran Lee Hoskins gave the benediction and an honor guard made up of Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars members fired a salute, followed by two trumpets playing taps with echo.
Many who attended the ceremony drove to the Legion hall, where lines backed out to the parking lot for a ham-and-beans lunch. Several representatives of U.S. Cellular were at the hall to offer veterans free long-distance telephone calls to anywhere in the United States between noon and 2 p.m.
"We know the importance of Veterans Day and what veterans have done, and we wanted to be able to honor that," said Donna Logback of Manhattan, field marketing manager. "You can call anybody -- friends, family, old Army buddies -- whoever they want to call."
A U.S. Cellular employee had downloaded the entire 411 directory information into his phone and was able to look up numbers for those who did not have numbers readily available.