Remembering Veterans Day in Honesdale

Posted 11/12/19

HONESDALE, PA — “Who better to advocate for peace than veterans?” asked Warren Schloesser, service officer with American Legion Post 254, local attorney and Vietnam War-era veteran, …

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Remembering Veterans Day in Honesdale

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HONESDALE, PA — “Who better to advocate for peace than veterans?” asked Warren Schloesser, service officer with American Legion Post 254, local attorney and Vietnam War-era veteran, as he spoke to the small crowd that had gathered to commemorate Veterans Day. “We… know better than most the cost of war: We have seen and experienced it, and sadly still do as veterans suffering from long-term consequences.”

Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 531 and American Legion Post 254 held the joint ceremony in Honesdale’s Veteran’s Park. VFW Commander Phil Sheehan welcomed the attendees, saying that many in this country have forgotten just how much veterans have sacrificed.

“That is why we are here today, to make sure we never forget—and I mean never forget—to honor all veterans,” he said.

The ceremony included a rifle salute, the playing of “Taps,” an explanation of symbols like the soldier’s cross and fallen comrade table, multiple prayers and the laying of a wreath and flowers by the VFW auxiliary. Members of the Honesdale High School performed "God Bless America."

Schloesser, the guest speaker, spoke about the effect that war has had on many veterans, lasting long after the conflicts they served in ended. He mentioned a few: unhealable injuries like blindness, illness from Agent Orange exposure, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health issues.

“All of this is real bad stuff, and therefore as veterans, we have needs,” Schlosser said. “We do not ask for veneration, but we ask for fair, reasonable treatment.” 

He spoke about the imperative of striving for peace, quoting one of the Beatitudes from the New Testament of the Bible, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” as well as President Dwight Eisenhower’s historic 1953 speech about the cost of war, and the quest for lasting peace:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed… The fruit of successes in all these tasks would present the world with the greatest task… the dedication of the energies, the resources and the imaginations of all peaceful nations to a new kind of war… not upon any human enemy but upon the brute forces of poverty and need.”

Schloesser closed with his thoughts on “lasting peace.” 

“This will not come in my lifetime, perhaps not in the lifetimes of my children, but hopefully in the lifetimes of my grandchildren.”

veterans day, honesdale, american legion, vfw, eisenhower

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