A special Veterans Day

It can never be said that this community does not place a high value its veterans. The latest reminder came Monday as Veterans Day events were held at the middle school in the morning, the elementary school in the afternoon and at the Greybull Elks Lodge in the evening.

All day our main street was lined with American flags. At the corner of Fifth Street and Greybull Avenue, flags of the various branches of the military twisted softly in the wind.  Businesses offered free coffee, donuts, drinks and burgers to those who served. 

With the static from the election turned down, and our thoughts on those who helped make our country great in the first place, it was a perfect way to emerge from a season that divided our country.

Veterans Day brought us all together.

Some takeaways from a busy day:

The first is a painful one, but there’s no avoiding it.  We’re losing our oldest veterans.  At GMS, Christine McMillan made it a point to honor Jim Clifton, 95, and Loren Good, 94, both of whom were in attendance. Both served in the Air Force.  Both are Korean War veterans.

At the Elks, organizer Pam Flitner initially asked every veteran in the house to stand and be recognized if they were over 70.  She then asked them to continue standing if they were over 80, then 90, then 91 ... and so on.  The last man standing was John Gibler of Basin, a World War II veteran.  A very warm and joyous round of applause followed.

The Greatest Generation commonly refers to those Americans who were born in the 1900s through the 1920s and who lived through the Great Depression. All three of these locals were born at the tail end of that era, which is amazing to think about.

Another takeaway is that many of our veterans didn’t view the end of their time in the military as the end of their service.  Monday night’s crowd included former mayors, county commissioners, business and community leaders and frequent volunteers.  

While these folks arrived a little late to be included the Greatest Generation, many of them lived by the motto of we before me. They knew how to sacrifice for the greater good.

Whether that commitment to community service is as strong among those their 20s, 30s and 40s is open to debate.  The fact is, very few of the candidates who ran for local office this year — school, town, hospital, etc. — were under 50.  That’ll need to change moving forward as our current leaders step aside. We trust that it will.  Our veterans continue to show us the way. 

• Looking for something good to watch? Our office received a tip last week from a subscriber, Madeline Kraft, about a show she’d seen on BYU-TV that featured the Shell Valley.

She asked that we pass it along to our readers.  The show isn’t new — it appears to have been released in early 2023 — but I hadn’t seen it. Madeline is right. It’s a very powerful piece about Tom Bercher and the Saddles in Service organization and the scenery is breathtaking.

If you haven’t seen it, visit byutv.org.  Under Shows, click on ‘Making Good’ featuring comedian/musician Kirby Heyborne. It’s Season 5, Episode 4.

Thank you, Madeline.