PORT ANGELES — Military service, patriotic music and a reminder of nonpartisan citizenship were celebrated at Ediz Hook on Veterans Day.
More than 500 veterans, their families and supporters gathered in a helicopter hangar for the 18th annual holiday ceremony at Coast Guard Air Station/Sector Field Office on Ediz Hook.
“I was going to ask the veterans in the audience to stand, but I’m afraid there would be no one left sitting,” said retired Navy Capt. John S. Payne of Poulsbo, keynote speaker and former commander of the USS Carl Vinson.
Payne, who retired in 1997 after 30 years and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, also piloted F-4 Phantoms.
Payne noted that while members of the military are free to vote their conscience, and to personally hold whatever political beliefs they wish, once in uniform they do not exercise freedom of speech or action.
“They are sworn by oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Our country is defended, protected and stabilized by an armed force of men and women of all political parties and viewpoints, who serve our nation with honor and loyalty,” Payne said.
“Whether Democrat, Republican or independent, the president of the United States is the commander in chief of our nation’s military structure, and with the aid of many other civilians, he or she is bound by our Constitution to exercise that presidential authority so as to provide for our nation’s security and to protect the freedoms of its citizens to the best of his or her ability,” he said.
Payne also spoke of the often forgotten military support of the Merchant Marine and organizations such as the Central Intelligence Agency.
He noted that music representing the Merchant Marine — an often undervalued wartime resource — was played during a medley of six armed forces songs, but that there were other agencies that contribute with little acknowledgement.
“There is no music for the CIA, unless it’s ‘Shh-shh-shh,” he joked.
Coast Guard Capt. Keith McTigue, commanding officer of the Port Angeles base, recognized many unsung groups of veterans — and one future veteran.
McTigue noted that four Medal of Honor recipients called the North Olympic Peninsula home, in addition to more than 10,000 less-decorated veterans.
“Today is a day of honor, and a day to honor. On this day of celebration and reflection, I thank everyone who has worn a U.S. military uniform for their service and for our freedom,” he said.
However, McTigue said, not every member of the military has come home.
“There are still 83,340 men and women still unaccounted for,” he said.
McTigue recounted the tale of an ongoing effort to recover the bodies of two Coast Guard airmen whose plane went down in 1942 on a glacier in Koge Bay, Greenland, “while performing rescue operations for a crew of a downed B-17 bomber, which in turn was providing rescue operations to a downed C-53 troop carrier.”
Three aircraft and eight men were lost in the series of crashes, and never recovered.
“No other country devotes so much energy and so many resources to account for our fallen,” McTigue said.
The ceremony included musical performances by the Port Angeles High School Band, the Sequim High School Select Choir, the Olympic Peninsula Men’s Choir and the Grand Olympics Chorus of Sweet Adelines International as well as bagpiper Thomas McCurdy.
The event was sponsored by the Clallam County Veterans Association.
A free veterans’ reception and barbecue followed at the Clallam County Veterans Center, hosted by the American Legion Auxiliary Post 29 of Port Angeles.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
