It was a big turnout on Friday, Nov. 11, for the Veterans Day Luncheon at NIC. Men and women from many wars, ranks and branches of the military attended and listened to the President of the Veterans Club and a couple other men spoke about their experiences and what Veterans Day meant to them. After they talked, the color guard was presented and a moment of silence was issued as the national anthem was played.
“I started this club because I saw a need on campus and the turnout is significant of that need,” said Joey Pena, president of the Veterans Club.
The Veterans Club offers a slew of services to Veterans. Among them, they will personally help those that need it. If a student can’t find their class, they will walk them to the class. The club will meet again on Friday 18. They encourage Veterans and family of Veterans to attend.
“The only way anything is going to change, the only way that anything is going to come about, is if we as Veterans collectively come together and add voice to those issues,” said Pena. “And with that voice, we can in turn, bring about change.”
It probably takes a lot of courage to fight and win a war. Ernie Peluso has that in spades. Peluso is a Veteran of World War II and is a survivor of a kamikaze attack that left him stranded in the ocean for a night. Peluso, more importantly, is a survivor of Pearl Harbor.
While suicide planes and enemy troops were viciously attacking Pearl Harbor, Peluso was struggling to survive and protect his base.
“We looked straight ahead of us, and there was a big ball of fire. It was the USS Saratoga got hit by a suicide plane,” Peluso said, The Spokesman Review.
The USS Saratoga was hit by five more suicide planes and by some miracle, stayed afloat. Another of the kamikaze planes began to head for the USS Bismarck Sea that Peluso was aboard.
“I seen one going by and I could see he had a white headband around his forehead. He was about five feet above the water and we couldn’t angle our guns down that far, Peluso said, The Spokesman Review. “He was coming in low and off at an angle…just about even with us.”
Each year on Veterans Day a national ceremony is held in Arlington National Ceremony. The men and women that fell in battle and were not identified are honored by the laying of a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…” said President Wilson addressing the beginning of Armistice Day, 1919.
Armistice Day was approved by Congress as a legal holiday May 13th 1938 and later, after World War II, Armistice was crossed out and replaced with “Veterans” to honor men and women of all wars in June of 1954.
“To me a Veteran is someone that served their country, whether they lived or died, they served their country. They blazed the trail for us to follow,” said Second Lieutenant Robert Lind, Army Reserves.
