By: Dr. Bill Harlan
Multiple American flags marked the site of our Veteran’s Day meeting at the San Ramon Regional Medical Center where Julie McKinney’s daughter was directing traffic. Everyone was there, even John Tatum whom a search team had found wandering the halls of the Country Club. President Lady Grizzly, Colette Lay snapped us to attention and ordered us to drop and give her 25 pushups. She welcomed the large crowd and invoked the RI President, Mark Maloney who always says, “Rotary connects the world.” President Lay introduced the CEO of the Medical Center, Ann Lucena, who had a few welcoming remarks. Ann is a graduate of Stanford and began her career at the center before taking over from Gary Sloan recently. She was named the San Ramon Business Person of the Year last year and has sung the National Anthem at an A’s game, twice. She led us in a spirited rendition of the anthem, something this correspondent does not remember Sloan doing even once! Throughout the solemn occasion Chris Gallagher kept playing with the sound system to everyone’s annoyance.
Colette turned the proceedings over to Chris Gallagher who asked the crowd if they had enjoyed their lunches and paid a special tribute to Julie McKinney who had organized and implemented this very impressive event. Chris introduced our speaker, Mike Conklin, who heads up the Sentinels of Freedom, an organization dedicated to helping severely wounded service members with housing, education and career. Mike’s commitment is personal, since he has three sons who served in the Rangers, one of whom was wounded in action. Since its founding the organization has served over 100 service members; Mike has been recognized by the Army with its highest civilian award.
Mike began his remarks reminding us of the origin of Veteran’s Day, which marked the Armistice of the First World War: the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. “The War to End All Wars” fell short of its promise. In 1954 Armistice Day was changed to Veteran’s Day. There are three ways in which a non-citizen can become an American: 1.) be born here; 2.) immigrate and go through the citizenship process; 3.) earn it by serving in the armed services. It is this last option that Mike likened to the old Crosby, Stills and Nash song, “Teach Your Children Well.”
In the aftermath of the First World War, the U.S. instituted bonuses for all veterans. The only problem was that they were set to take effect 20 years after their service. With the onset of the Great Depression, veterans demanded their bonuses early when their need was greatest. They marched on Washington. The Army had to be called out to disperse them violently. (Two officers involved in that confrontation were Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur.) Franklin Roosevelt worried that the same thing would occur after World War II and spurred the efforts to institute the G.I. Bill of Rights for veterans which ended up helping 8 million service people. Before the war a college education had been a mark of the elite; because of government provisions, millions got a chance at education’s benefits. The G.I. Bill became an economic engine and mechanism for social mobility and continues to do so. (Since 2001 over one million vets have availed themselves of it.)
Mike closed his remarks by observing that the U.S. has always been fierce in battle and magnanimous in victory. That same spirit is evident in those who serve our country who continue to serve their communities. Mike told the story of a veteran who had trouble with people awkwardly telling him they appreciated his service. He wondered what the correct response should be. Was he giving them some kind of psychological pass? He finally hit upon an answer. He would shake their hands and tell them, “You were worth it.” He was prompting them to ask themselves, “What did I do to earn this young man’s sacrifice?” Hopefully they would be better citizens as a result. Mike then showed a short film called “The Sound Tank” about people from different generations watching old newsreels about prior wars. The sight of the sacrifice of veterans even made the kids put down their phones for a minute.
Conklin then introduced individually the 41 veterans who were in attendance and asked them to identify their branch and years of service. They received a standing ovation from the crowd. There were too many to mention all of them, but this correspondent spoke with three special vets: Dennis Lambert flew helicopters for the Navy during the Vietnam War. Mike Cozad has served in the Air National Guard for 19 years and has been stationed all over the world. Horace Crawford, our old friend was back with the help of Peggy to remind us that he served in the Korean War. It was a glorious Veteran’s Day celebration, all thanks to Julie McKinney, Ann Lucena, the staff of the SRRMC and Mike Conklin.
