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Saluting sacrifice
Durango's Blue Star Memorial rededicated in Santa Rita Park
Herald Staff Writer
Military veterans - active and retired - their families and community members, 300 strong, gathered Monday at Santa Rita Park to rededicate the Blue Star Memorial Marker that pays tribute to members of the armed forces.
The common message of speakers was: While folks back home go about their daily business, it's the military defending the nation that gives them the freedom to do so.
Retired U.S. Air Force chief of staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman said rank means nothing when patriotism is required. The Blue Star Memorial Marker is a way of saying thanks to those who served and to their families, Fogleman said.
Jim Dyer, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marines and former state senator, paid tribute to those whose fate remains unknown. Dyer remembered a corporal who disappeared as North Vietnamese troops closed in on his unit in the waning days of the war.
Dyer, who visited the man's siblings years later, said their greatest fear was their brother's sacrifice would be forgotten.
"We have not forgotten," Dyer said.
Cindy Schwarzkopf filled in for her father, retired U.S. Army General Norman Schwarzkopf, probably best known as commander during Desert Storm in 1991.
As a military brat, Cindy Schwarzkopf said, she lived in 14 places by the time she was 18, but the feeling of "connectiveness" and infectious patriotism among military families far outweighed any hardships related to frequent moves.
"It's too easy to forget the soldiers in harm's way while we go about our day-to-day," Schwarzkopf said. "I hope this ceremony reminds us of their sacrifice." Jon Schuetz, who shepherded along the installation of the Blue Star Memorial Marker and who did the introductions Monday, said: "This (ceremony) is about all veterans, the people who support them and the people sitting here." Two Navajo Code Talkers who served with the Marines in World War II - Samuel F. Sandoval and David Patterson - received standing ovations when they were introduced and when they received plaques in recognition of their service.
Navajo Code Talkers, speaking their native language, communicated military orders the Japanese never were able to decipher. Sandoval and Patterson were among 130 Code Talkers who saw combat in such Pacific Theater battles as Okinawa, Guadalcanal, Bougainville and the Marshall Islands.
Veterans attended the dedication, which coincided with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in military garb and in civvies.
"It was very humbling," said Chuck Thompson, an Army specialist 4 who still has shrapnel in his right shoulder from wounds received in Vietnam from 1969-71 when he was a member of an Army reconnaissance team. "The Blue Star Moms and the Gold Star Moms need more recognition and more support." Blue Star Moms have a son or daughter in the armed forces. Gold Star Moms have lost a child in military service.
Thompson is a member of American Legion Post 75 in Cortez, which served as the honor guard at the dedication ceremony.
Jordan McInnis, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4031 in Durango, was surprised and pleased by the large crowd.
"I'm proud of this town," said McInnis, a Coast Guard petty officer who served during the Korean War in early-day navigation that directed planes supporting the ground war. "It was a great turnout." Jim Frantz was a seaman aboard the USS Markab, a repair ship that attended the USS Turner Joy and the USS Maddox, destroyers that were damaged by Vietnamese torpedo boats in the 1964 Tonkin Gulf incident that brought increased United States involvement in Vietnam.
"The ceremony was great," Frantz said. "I wish they could have done more." Jasen Shorman, in the Army from 1990-99 and again since 2005, now is the National Guard recruiter in Durango.
"I loved the ceremony," Shorman said. "It was well done." The Blue Star Memorial Marker program was initiated during World War II by the National Garden Club. Blue Star Marker programs exist in all 50 states, with the total number exceeding 500. The Garden Club of Durango sponsors and maintains the marker at Santa Rita Park.
The Santa Rita Park marker, a granite slab weighing more than 8,000 pounds, was installed in September after the former and smaller memorial was removed to accommodate the widening of U.S. Highway 550/160. A pot of red, white and blue flowers sat at the base of the marker.
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