Former military

Stop. Wait. If you haven't seen "Annie Get Your Gun" don't let next weekend go by without attending Irving Berlin's wonderful musical at the Fox. Great costuming and the stage scenery is brilliant but Annie played by Tyler Rambali is superbly done. The young lady obviously has great talent and in my opinion, should she choose, will be a national star in theatre. Guaranteed you will enjoy the evening.

Sunday evening Grannie and I were asked to help the North Platte American Legion Post celebrate the Legion's 96th birthday. That energetic group annually honors their local fire and police forces by giving "man of the year" awards. At least this year all awards were given to young men but women are obviously not excluded.

It was a nice touch and I would like to see a similar effort in this community. We too have a great amount of talent serving in our fire, emergency medical/ambulance, sheriff and police teams. They do a great service to this community and sometimes we maybe tend to take their humanitarian efforts for granted.

Your humble columnist was asked to speak to the honorees, their guests and members after we dined. Nebraskans eat.

Gathering my wits I explored two lines of thought. The main requirement for membership in the Legion, VFW and similar organizations is to have served in one of the military branches in a prior life. In my experience walking into a vet's meeting is like coming home. We all have had the humbling experience of basic training and then the bonding that comes with joining a skilled team. In a sense we are family and if you have served you are welcome.

Our granddaughter married a Marine. Yeah I know, Air Force, me, and Marine, him, keep up a good natured traditional feud but family trumps all that. Not long ago I rode with her through the Marine guarded gate unto Camp Pendleton. At the time her husband was deployed to a not real friendly part of the world and she was living alone in liberal Southern California. Once inside the gate she turned to me and stated "Papa once I come through that gate I feel safe." I love the military!

The second venue that I wanted to explore was that here in America people serve in the military then come home and continue to serve their fellow man in community. One of the honorees last evening, now a Nebraska Hiway Patrol Investigator, had been a Marine. He was using skills learned as a Marine and his bearing and demeanor spoke to his past. Another young man, now a fireman EMT had served in the Army and used his G.I. Bill to attend college and train for those positions after he got out of the service.

Look around in our own community and you will find those who had prior service. Law enforcement seems to be attractive and Chief Ike is prior Air Force, another cop was a Marine (note there are no ex-Marines, once a Marine always a Marine). At least one of our fine firemen was an Army medic serving on a Blackhawk helicopter ambulance and is now using those skills to serve our community. There are many many more.

Prior military folks also come to our community and become productive in all sorts of areas different from where they served in the military. In this community you can find farmers, doctors, dentists, bakers, pilots, production line workers, managers, common laborers, the list goes on, all with a proud history of military service. There is something about the discipline learned in the military that tends to make us want to be a productive part of our communities.

Speaking of community Grannie Annie spoke of how this greater McCook Community supports her ministry to send care packages to our troops presently deployed to the war zone through the Adopt-A-Chaplain program. Her remarks were well received because most present could identify with being lonely and gone then receiving mail and packages from someone back home that cares. America is the best!

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail