Enlisted soldiers share their stories with crowd

    RIVERSIDE ? Washington County residents honored veterans in a number of ceremonies on Veterans Day Thursday. Riverside held an event in the afternoon at the Veterans Memorial Park. In Washington, a dinner was held at the Iowa Army National Guard Readiness Center.  

Washington County Veteran Affairs commissioner Terry Philips guided the proceedings in Riverside, which began with the posting of the flags by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6414.

    The Highland High School chorus sang the national anthem and later ?America the Beautiful.? Father Rich Adam of St. Mary?s Catholic Church gave the invocation, and the Riverside Elementary School led the crowd in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Riverside Mayor Brian McDole spoke on behalf of the city about the gratitude owed to veterans.

    The featured speaker of the afternoon was Major Jeffrey Rothermel, who lives in Iowa City. Rothermel was a Team Chief in Iraq, where he led a team of counterinsurgency advisors that worked with an Iraqi Army battalion.

    He remarked, ?There?s one thing this nation produces better than any other country, and that is soldiers.?

Rothermel related a few of his experiences in Iraq to the audience. He said it was not the United States? advanced technology that set it apart from the world, but the quality of its enlisted men and women. He said that Iraqis noted the difference between their guns and their superior American counterparts. However, he said that his non-commissioned officers could outperform the Iraqis even when firing Iraqi guns.    

    He said Americans should be happy to live in a free country. 

    ?You can be proud that we have a federal law for Veterans Day,? he said. ?The law doesn?t tell us what to do on Veterans Day. No one told us to be here, but look at how many people are here today. You came here by choice.?

    Rothermel told a story about how an Iraqi army officer commented that the American military in Iraq doesn?t care about stuff, but rather about time. 

For the full story, see the Nov. 12 edition of The Washington Evening Journal