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Veterans Day ceremony held at Iowa Veterans Home

T-R PHOTO BY MIKE DONAHEY The Rev. Angela Doty, Chaplain, Iowa Veterans Home is shown at the lectern giving the invocation at Veterans Day services Sunday at IVH. To her near right is IVH Commandant Timon Oujiri. To her far right is program keynote speaker Brig. Gen. Shawn Ford.

As long as the Iowa Veterans Home exists, Iowans can expect a Veterans Day ceremony where those who served are thanked, and the men and women who laid down their lives for freedom are remembered.

Despite Veterans Day falling on Sunday this year, a standing-room only crowd of residents, staff and guests was on hand to hear stirring patriotic music performed by Roxanne Bach and the Marshalltown Men’s Chorus in the Malloy Leisure Resource Center.

Shortly after 11 a.m, IVH Chaplain Rev. Angela Doty, IVH Commandant Timon Oujiri and keynote speaker Brig. Gen. Shawn Ford of the Iowa National Guard paid homage to veterans of all eras – from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror.

Holding the ceremony at the 11th hour on the 11th day in the 11th month was fitting at IVH, where 505 residents are served by approximately 850 staff.

The official end of World War I hostilities took effect at 11 a.m. Nov. 11, 1918, with an armistice signed between the Allies and Germany. The memories of that horrible war – which saw the advent of the machine gun, tank and poison gas – killed hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians led President Woodrow Wilson to declare Nov. 11 Armistice Day.

The U.S. Congress renamed Armistice Day Veterans Day after the Korean War in 1954.

“World War I was to be the war that ended all wars,” Ford said. “But we know there were wars that followed. A wise philosopher said: ‘Only the dead have seen the end to war.'”

Ford oversees a command of 1,800.

He is a command pilot with more than 3,500 flying hours in numerous aircraft.

He has flown more than 800 combat hours in support of Operation Southern Watch, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Freedom Sentinel.

In his detailed and succinct remarks, he proudly listed Iowa men and women, and Iowa National Guardsman who answered the nation’s call to serve.

“In World War II, 263,000 Iowans served,” he said. “In Korea, 85,000, followed by 115,000 in Vietnam, 3,000 in the Persian Gulf, 885 in Panama and 36,000 since Sept. 1, 2001”

“God bless you, and God bless the United States of America,” Ford said at the conclusion.

Veterans Day ceremonies continue today throughout Central Iowa, at schools, American Legion and Veterans of Foreign War posts.

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Contact Mike Donahey at 6412-753-6611,

or mdonahey@timesrepublican.com

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