Washington veterans share stories at Blair House

When American Legion Post 29 selected Bruce Timmins to speak at the Blair House Veterans Day service in Washinton, he prepared a five-page speech on the history of the holiday. Upon walking into the room, however, he scrapped it entirely.

“I have been a longtime member of the Legion and this post, but due to deployments and everything else, I haven’t had the ability to attend, so I don’t know a lot of you,” he said. “I think it would be nice to get to know you guys. I can share a little bit about my military service, and I’d like to know about yours.”

After Timmins shared his history as a command sergeant major, other veterans in attendance spoke up to share their stories, including Mike York, who served from an office inside the states.

“I helped bring training schedules, distribute them and so on,” York said. “I felt bad about not leaving the states and not really doing much. (A friend) asked, ‘Did you do what your country asked you to do?’ and I said, ‘Yes,’ and she said, ‘Then you did your part.’”

After several stories were shared, Timmins gave something more akin to a conventional speech, speaking to the importance of the holiday across generational lines.

“When the majority of us came back from Desert Storm, Iraq, Afghanistan, you came with your unit and came home to a parade and ceremony and everything else,” he said. “In Vietnam, the Korean War, these soldiers, sailors, marines came home, and the only welcome the majority of them got was their family, if that. Every time I meet a Korean War vet or Vietnam vet, I try to tell them thank you and welcome home, to try and make up for the honors they didn’t recieve.”

Timmins said the decision to improvise, while last-minute, was the natural choice.

"The majority of the people I was going to talk to already knew it, the history of Veterans Day, how it started out as Armistice Day,“ he said. “I thought it would be a better use of our time and more interesting for them to allow other veterans to share their experiences.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com