To honor and remember

PORTALES - From the German prison camps of the "Great War" to the nebulous contours of the "War on Terror," Portales this year celebrated the range of military service among Roosevelt County sons and daughters for the centennial of the 1918 Armistice that first defined Veterans Day.

"To forget our veterans is not only a shame, but it is the surest way to lead us into war and the eventual downfall of our great nation," said Cannon Air Force Base's 27th Special Operations Mission Support Group Commander Col. John Boudreaux, speaking during an event Saturday.

Remembrance, recognition and reflection were front and center during Veterans Day programming in the days surrounding the holiday. Saturday evening, Portales VFW Post 9515 inducted 10 more local names to its "Wall of Heroes," and on Monday an afternoon curriculum of historical presentations at Eastern New Mexico University followed a service that cold, wintry morning in the city's Memorial Building.

Among guests of honor at Saturday's ceremony were the numerous surviving children of WWI veteran Fred Davis, who joined the U.S. Army Oct. 2, 1917, and was held prisoner at Rastatt prison camp in Germany for six months.

His hat, coat and boots (still flecked with mud from France) were contributed to a wall there of military uniforms from different eras, hung in company with a uniform from his great-granddaughter Jessica Gregory's tours in Iraq generations later.

Jimmie Gayle Franklin, one of Davis' seven daughters, spoke with The News and recalled her history teacher at Portales High School trying to tell her she was mistaken in claiming her father was in the first World War.

"Let me give you a little history," Mike Woolley said, leading the ceremony. "Roosevelt County was established Feb. 28, 1903. New Mexico wasn't established as a state until Jan. 6, 1912. World War I was declared July 28, 1914. So in 11 years we went from county, to statehood to World War I."

That's 11 years from county to war, and it was a triad of "elevens" that marked the end of that war, "on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month," in 1918, as Boudreaux emphasized.

Members of local Boy Scout Troop 18, Clovis High School Junior ROTC honor guard and Roosevelt County 4-H assisted in hoisting the framed citations for the nine inductees additional to Davis. Among those honored were Portales' newspaper editor of 50 years Gordon Greaves, Roosevelt County historian Jim Warnica, physician Herman Lehman, educators Kenneth Livingston, J. P. Steiner and Ella Becky Sharp, science fiction luminary Jack Williamson, athlete Morris Wood and former ENMU class president Preston Dunn.

On Monday, the university hosted an afternoon of educational presentations on topics ranging from medicine to fascism in relation to WWI, part of a special lineup to recognize the centennial of that conflict's conclusion.

"It's an event that's steeped in emotion as well as history," said Kade Miranda, vice-president of the college's History Guild.

The CHS ROTC honor guard again led posting of the colors, while PHS trumpeters provided music and ENMU's assistant trumpet professor Sidney Shuler played taps on bugle.

ENMU President Jeff Elwell announced during a brief presentation that the college would soon again host an ROTC program, set to begin next year with Texas Tech students. Attendees at the Golden Student Success Center then heard from local veterans of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and the War on Terror.

Jessica Curtis was 15 when the 9/11 attacks happened, and she said Monday that she ended up serving six years in the Air Force, during which time she became the first female linguist certified on the CV-22 Osprey. After leaving the service she earned two degrees at ENMU and now serves as the university's STEM outreach manager.

"The global war on terror has a sort of nebulous component to it," she said. "The longest U.S. war ever fought is a curious one in that it isn't always clear who we're fighting..."

American Legion Post 31's vice-commander Randy Dunson, a Vietnam-era veteran, attended the afternoon programming and said the morning ceremony was moved indoors due to weather and saw a turnout of some 30 citizens.