Today is Veterans Day and the Colorado Democratic Party office is closed. However, I wanted to take a moment and thank all the veterans in Colorado and around the world for their service. We don’t say thank you enough.
Colorado has over 400,000 veterans. I just signed a fundraising letter for State Representative Joe Rice, who is over in Iraq for another tour of duty. For those of you that receive it, let’s help Joe raise the dollars he needs while he serves his country.
Thank you to Larry Drake, who is newly appointed to the Democratic National Committee’s veterans council. He will serve us all well. Thank you to the Colorado veterans who are active in the Colorado Democratic Party. So many of you work to make sure we have good candidates and a strong party. And thank you to U.S. Rep. John Salazar, a veteran himself, who works every day to improve health coverage for vets.
My husband, my brothers, my nephew and my dad are all veterans. Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my dad, who has Alzheimer’s. We went to a Veterans Day party at the Assisted Living Center. I listened to the stories from this group of elders and remembered that my farmer grandfather and his wife worked to fold parachutes during World War II.
There were two elderly women who worked in the rationing office, issuing cards and stamps for sugar, flour, tires. Another women worked for the American Red Cross. One woman trained women to take men’s jobs while the fellows were overseas. Another trained as a nurses aide because there was a shortage of nurses.
An elderly man served as a medic in World War II and then was called back to go to Korea. Another staff sgt. in the Army Air Corps served in the South Pacific. There was retired officer from the Navy who talked at length about his experience. One woman said that she was a child during World War II, but she went out to collect scrap metal.
Boxly Waak, my dad, left the family farm and went into the U.S. Army in 1935. Despite a lack of a high school education, he would go to Officer Candidate School and spend much of his time in the service training field artillery. After active duty, Dad continued to serve in the U.S. Army reserve unit finally retiring as a Captain. He was proud yesterday to be honored with a flag pin. He whispered to me, ” I am so glad they did this.”
As we continue to pressure our Federal elected officials and candidates to get us out of the war in Iraq, we also need to pay tribute to those who we send into battle in Iraq and Afghanistan. And we must not forget those who served in all of the other engagements throughout history. Thank you for being willing to risk your life for your country. May we some day have a permanent peace.
Hello, Colorado Democrats:
I am a World War II vet who served as a first lieutenant and flew 31 combat missions over Nazi Germany. I am also an active Democrat living in Chicago, Illinois. My family has ties to both the Obama and Clinton campaigns (my wife Joanne is a former member of the DNC) and in 2005 Rep. Rahm Emanuel arranged for the airing of a local TV program about World War II vets that included my story.
Do you think one of the veterans mentioned in your letter might be healthy enough to travel to Denver in late August for the Democratic National Convention?
The reason I ask is that I’d like to put together three or four articulate World War II vets to make a brief presentation from the podium of the convention showing the connection between our party and veterans.
Please let me know of someone who might want to take part. Because I served in the air force, it might be helpful if the Colorado vet was army or navy.
War regards,
James Alter
312 337-2035