Memorial Day program at Huron
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HURON — Before she answered the call to serve her Lord, Pastor Joanne Nagele of Huron made the decision to join the Navy.
It was the 1970s, the war was raging in Vietnam and the streets back home were often filled with protestors.
A recruiter she talked with told her they needed women to fill openings left by men who were working on the ships.
“When I decided to do that, it was very unpopular to be a member of the military,” Nagele said in her address at Huron’s Memorial Day on Monday.
“But I was troubled with young men my age who were drafted,” she said.
Nagele offered her words of gratitude to all the men and women who have served their country in the military, all of those who are on active duty today and the families and friends left behind who desperately need comforting because of the loss of their relatives.
“We come to give thanks to God for all of those who have shown their greatest love by laying down their lives for others,” Nagele said.
Since the country was founded, every generation has had to face the prospect of sending men and women off to war.
“We find ourselves working to come together to do whatever we feel is important to help make this world a better place,” Nagele said. “I believe our God is gracious and gives us the wherewithal and the creativity to deal with it.”
She approached a recruiter to find out how she could help, or to at least find out if she was eligible to serve.
She vividly remembers her first day in boot camp in Maryland, after her first plane ride. The night before, she had gazed up into a clear Minnesota sky in late November and spotted her favorite constellation, Orion.
Reveille was at 4 in the morning, “or some awful time,” she said.
But rising at that hour, she looked up into the Maryland sky and was comforted to see that Orion was still there, just in a different location.
Alone and on her own, she had to adjust to barracks life and the fact that she must abide by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a book she had been expected to memorize before her arrival at boot camp.
PHOTOS BY ROGER LARSEN/PLAINSMAN
Shown reciting the Pledge of Allegiance after the colors were posted are, from left, Gene McMillan, Keith McMillan, Pastor Joanne Nagele, Howard Alter and Taylor Jans, as the Memorial Day program begins Monday at Huron High School.
Next, Pastor Nagele delivers the Memorial Day address.
Next, members of Boy Scout Troop 151 helped lay wreaths.
And next, Gene McMillan plays taps at the conclusion.