Veterans honor themselves

Published 6:21 pm Monday, November 14, 2005

By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Wolford, daughter of 32-year Legion Commander Lawrence O. Starrett, said her exposure to Veterans Administration hospitals revealed another “very sad state. You guys are getting less and less. Young men in the service today, I don't even know what they're going to get. Unless you're shot and almost dead, you might as well forget it. You're only going to get so much help and then they're going to boot you out. It's a very sore spot for me because I've been involved in this for so many years.
City Clerk Jim Snow said after Bert Smith read off names of those killed in World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam, “I'm not originally from Dowagiac, but I knew most of those names and I could even go back to the houses where some of them lived in this town and outside of town.”
Darr also spoke about his 1945 classmate, Capt. Iven Carl Kincheloe, the Korean war ace for whom Dowagiac named an elementary school.
Cheryl Merwin, president of the American Legion Auxiliary, said, “I'm very privileged to be here in the presence of all the veterans. We have tried the last few years to show our appreciation to you. We hold our veterans recognition day and we try to honor those members of the post who have given so much. My father's a veteran. My husband's a veteran. My father-in-law's a veteran. My daughter's currently in the Air Force.