PARSONS – All gave some and some gave all, and this year, folks from all across Tucker County came out in large numbers to honor and give their thanks to local Veterans who fought for our freedom. Programs were held at Tucker Valley Elementary Middle and Davis Thomas Elementary Middle Schools honoring local Veterans, and the Tucker County Veterans Association hosted a Veterans Day Ceremony on Tuesday at the All Veterans Memorial Wall in Parsons.
Kevin Keplinger, retired military and currently employed with the West Virginia State Police, said he was honored to speak at the Veterans Day Ceremony. He said he wanted to focus on what makes a Veteran different.
“You can tell someone is a Veteran by the way they walk, talk and how they act,” Keplinger said. “From the Minute Men to the soldier in Afghanistan, all military Veterans underwent some common connections and experiences. There is a profound change we experience when we join the military.”
Keplinger said his drill Sergeants were famous for saying, “You are not in fort living room anymore.”
“It’s a profound change,” Keplinger said. “Nothing is ever the same again once you join the military. From the language that we spoke to telling time, everything was different. We are told there was the right way, the wrong way and the Army way.”
Keplinger said the biggest change for him was when he came home for leave.
“The first time I tried to walk with my girlfriend, now wife, I caught myself chain stepping,” he said. “It’s just a reaction to step. Left, left, left.”
Another big change Keplinger said he noticed was when he came home and ate a meal with his family.
“
I don’t remember ever sitting down to eat a meal at Fort Benning,” Keplinger said. “You walked in; you walked through the line and then went to the line to empty your tray, and what you got to eat while standing in line was what you got to eat because there wasn’t time for it. The first time I went home, I went through my meal like a buzz saw. I looked up and everyone was looking at me with a shocked look on their faces.”
Keplinger said as military Veterans, folks are changed.
“You are not the person you were before,” Keplinger said. “As Veterans we learned that no matter what your place in life is, no matter what your job is, and no matter where you find yourself, you know that is an important job. It’s tough to realize that your place may not be as glamorous as someone else, but every job and every person is important. We live that. We know everyone has a place and a purpose.”
Keplinger said Veterans were expected to sacrifice for the greater good of their unit.
“We were expected to sacrifice for the greater good of our country and our community,” Keplinger said. “That is extremely important as Veterans because we carried that on as we left. We understand it is not about us but about our country and our families and our communities. That is what is important.”
Keplinger said he once heard a Veteran is someone who at one point in his life wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America with an amount up to and including his own life.
“Those who gave their all did it willingly,” Keplinger said. “Those who gave their all did so because they believed the outcome was more important than them. They did so for the good of this nation. The apostle John recorded these words of Jesus when he said, ‘No greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends.”’
Those gathered at the memorial sang the National Anthem and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Parsons Mayor Dorothy Judy spoke about all Veterans, including the Vietnam Veterans and the Tucker County Veterans presented the Colors, placed a memorial wreath and played Taps. Pastor Allen Crosten of the First Baptist Church led the invocation and benediction. Vickie Mason led the welcome and dismissal and musical selections were presented by Fred Pudderbaugh.