MOKANE, Mo. - The American Veterans Post 153 dedicated its Veterans Memorial Wall last weekend during the 12th annual Frogs and Hogs festival.
Construction of the memorial wall began in August 2014 and was completed in July 2015. Since then, 73 plaques of local and nearby community veterans have been added.
It displays various branches of American service branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and National Guard and also includes information from the Confederate Army of Missouri. Also recognized are veterans who served in the Spanish-American War, World War II, Korea and Vietnam conflicts, and Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Wall was encompassed by a row of flags, the "Field of Honor." These flags were displayed behind the wall to commemorate all veterans. Family and friends donated money to have their loved one's name displayed and have a flag fly in their name. Each flag represented a veteran who served, or is serving honorably. Twenty-six of 30 positions have been filled. The flags will stay on the wall until the day after Veteran's Day.
Don Dettmann of AMVETS Post 153 provided a short dedication speech for this emotional event.
"As Americans, we don't fight because of the hate and anger that's in front of us," Dettmann said during the closing ceremony. "We fight because of the love that's behind us."
David Coleman, Post 153 chaplain and the secondary chaplain at the state level, provided the opening and closing prayer. Also on hand were Dale Laughlin, post finance and Commander Bob Spencer. Spencer is recovering from major heart surgery and handed the ceremony responsibilities to his senior officer.
The Color Guard was provided by the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps from Vienna. The AMVET State Honor Guard and bugler provided the gun salute and taps (AMVETS Post 106, St. Louis).
Also attending was Katie Bernicky of the Calwood area, a 12-year-old who works hard for veterans and has been recognized for her efforts many times. Katie currently holds the 2017 Missouri Young
Miss crown. She has single-handedly raised enough money to send 19 veterans to Washington, D.C., via the Central Missouri Honor Flight program. She did this by her own fund raising activities and selling water, cookies and raffle tickets at the Honor Flight assembly area (Kingdom City Firefighter Memorial).