Emery Town honors veterans

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

Emery Town honored their Veterans with a program before their regularly scheduled council meeting. “Just us” performed some patriotic songs for the audience. This band includes: John Sehestedt, Mike Christensen and Ross Christiansen. They sang God Bless the USA and America the Beautiful.
Young women from Emery read spotlights of the Veterans who they had talked to and wrote a story about them. They included Scottee Hunsaker, MariLyn Malan, Dez Mangum and Loren Jones. They read the spotlights and then asked the audience to guess which Veteran it was. The first Veteran they spotlighted was Merlin Christiansen. They said he served in World War II in the Navy. They asked his favorite place he went to on his tour of duty and he said his favorite place was home. He served in the South Pacific and remembers the coconut groves there. He received nurses training. He remembers it took two weeks to get letters from home. He drove an ambulance and one time when he was driving the ambulance it was raining so hard, it flooded the engine with water.
Another Veteran spotlighted was Russell Jensen. He was in the Vietnam war. He entered basic training and he was older than most of the other soldiers so they nicknamed him pops, or gramps. He was only 26 at the time. In Vietnam they lived in hooches. The Vietnamese women washed their clothes and hung them up to dry.
Jensen said the women were treated very badly over there and they had to clean the latrines. He actually liked the food they had there and sometimes his friend would gather everyone together and they would have a BBQ. They gave them $91 a month for pay. He hurt his leg in Vietnam. The hard part about the Vietnam war was you couldn’t tell who was friend or enemy. He was very proud to be able to serve his country.
Scottee Hunsaker sang a song in tribute to Veterans.
The “Just us” band sang one more song and expressed their gratitude and appreciation to Veterans.
Russell Jensen is the commander of the Emery American Legion. He said they have 29 Veterans in Emery and he would like to see more of them participate in the American Legion. When a Veteran dies then the American Legion helps with the military services. “I would like to encourage everyone eligible to be members of the American Legion,” said Jensen.
Emery Mayor Mistie Christiansen read a story about Veterans to the young children. Each of the Veterans in the town was presented with a corsage and a certificate of appreciation which read, “In recognition and gratitude for the service that you gave to the United States Armed Forces, thank you.
With reflection we remember those we lost and who lost so much. With pride we stand beside the brave, with resolve we defend our freedom, with hope we sow peace and rebuild,” said the Emery City Council.
After the ceremony the Veterans and town residents had refreshments and visited.