Bill Shirley sprinkled vignettes about a number of World War II veterans along with other thoughts Monday as he spoke during a Memorial Day Service in Iola.
Shirley, who served in the Army for 22 years before a 22-year career as a history teacher and school administrator, also served a combined 12 years as an Iola city commissioner and mayor.
He started his speech by recognizing those in the American Legion, as well as those who help in other ways, by placing flags on veterans’ graves at cemeteries in and around Allen County.
“Those events don’t just take place,” Shirley said. ‘“There’s a lot of volunteer work and hard work to make everything look so great.”
And while Memorial Day is a day to pay homage to those who died in combat, the holiday also offers an opportunity to honor others, both in and out of uniform, Shirley said.
He was referring to wives and family of those serving overseas.
“It used to be if you were on active duty, your wives and children were left behind,’ Shirley said. “They hardly ever got a thank-you.”
In fact, up until the Vietnam War, death notices for soldiers were painfully impersonal. “
“It used to be the way the Army notified people was by Western Union,” Shirley said. “They’d just give a telegram to a taxi driver, and a lot of times they wouldn’t even ring a doorbell. They just stick the notice in the door.”
That practice changed in the Vietnam War, when a colonel’s wife instructed the taxi drivers to deliver the notices to her so she could give a personal notification.
In effect, she developed the first-ever support network for veterans’ families, Shriley said.
“It’s all changed so much,” Shirley said.
SHIRLEY touched on three World War II veterans he got to know, particularly after accompanying a group on a 2008 Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.
Orville Rogers’s wife wrote him a letter, every day, of the three years he was stationed in Asia, Shirley recalled, “which certainly made an impact.”
Margaret Rogers was even invited to join her husband on the Honor Flight, which carried another distinction. It was the first time either had flown on an airplane. Both were 92.
“Don’t worry,” the pilot joked over the intercom. “It’s my first time flying, too.”
