03/28/2024
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Celebrate Veterans – It Matters!

Veterans6Lower Cape Fear Hospice & Life Care Center celebrated US Veterans on May 7th, with a Luncheon and Recognition event at 11:00 am, which was hosted by Dublin Baptist Church. LCFH&LCC Community Outreach Coordinator, Lisa Priest Clark, said, “We sponsor this event annually in Bladen and Columbus counties, and this year we have Bladen-Gaskins as our co-sponsor. But all the people you see working here today are volunteers.” Other sponsors of the event were Campbell Oil, who donated (4) $25.00 gift cards for door prizes, and Senator Richard Burr, who donated flags for the veterans.

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The event began with the Presentation of Colors by the JROTC from West Bladen High School. As the US Flag entered the room, all veterans jumped to their feet and placed hands over hearts. All repeated the Pledge of Allegiance, and the West Bladen High School Band played the National Anthem, as well as a medley of military songs representing the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force. Each veteran stood as their branch’s song was played. Most of the veterans present were involved in Vietnam, Korea, and more recent conflicts, but special mention was made for those WWII vets still living. More than 65 people attended.

The keynote speaker was Tom Martin, a retired officer with 21 years of active service, and a list of medals that includes the Purple Heart. Martin related to the crowd, his harrowing experience of being shot down, burned, and narrowly escaping with his life, in Vietnam in 1972. He described what it felt like to fly his helicopter into heavy enemy fire, with bullets whizzing by in every direction. “Now you tell me,” Martin asked, “How was it possible that I flew that chopper through that kind of fire without getting hit?” Later returning to the same battlefield, Martin was shot down, and the flames from the burning wreckage reached him before he could free himself from the pilot-restraints. Then he had to crawl through the jungle to escape the approaching enemy. After Martin’s message, there was a showing of the documentary Honor Flight, about a race against the clock to fly thousands of WWII veterans to Washington, DC to see the memorial constructed for them.

The theme for the event this year was Celebrate Veterans! Veterans Matter! You Matter! Lower Cape Fear Hospice & Life Care Center wants every veteran to live well, because every moment of life matters. They believe we should all remember to honor our veterans because they have lived the lives of unsung heroes. Freedom isn’t free, because someone has to pay for it. Our veterans have done that for a nation.

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