Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
When Clovis veterans and their relatives come to today’s Memorial Day services scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Clovis-Carver Public Library, they won’t be hearing speeches by politicians or community leaders.
Instead, they’ll hear family members of eight of the 171 war dead whose names are engraved on a new veterans’ monument tell the stories of the lives of their relatives who died in World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
Jim Cowman of the Clovis Joint Veterans Council coordinated the veterans’ memorial project and said it’s long overdue.
“Most communities do this; they have a war memorial somewhere that lists them,” Carter said. “Clovis didn’t so we thought it should be done.”
Today’s ceremony will highlight eight veterans:
• Charles J. Williams from World War I, represented by James R. Williams and Charles J. Williams;
• Charles Ledbetter from World War I, represented by Dudley Bailey and Billie Ware;
• Joe C. Garcia from World War II, represented by Helen Garcia Trujillo and George Trujillo;
• Dan and Jack Love from World War II, represented by John T. Young, Nancy Young Wright, and John E. and Iris Young;
• T.S. Moore from Korea, represented by Jim and Lela Moore;
• Jimmy Hohstead from Vietnam, represented by Donna White and Tommy Hohstead; and
• Harvie P. Winkles III from Vietnam, represented by Perry and Rada Winkles.
The master of ceremonies for the event, Senior Master Sgt. James Stewart of the 27th Security Forces Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base, said he’s looking forward to the event.
“Being a career military person, you realize the sacrifices the guys we are trying to honor have made and this is the least we can do,” Stewart said. “We have to get the younger generation involved, and if they don’t realize their past there’s not going to be a future.”
