Congratulations, concern expressed in local tributes on Veterans Day
- Mark Sabbatini
- 2 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Newly-completed memorial park for Alaska Native vets, call for return to peace of Armistice Day amidst current-day conflicts mark this year’s traditional events in Juneau
Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Traditional Veterans Day ceremonies took on a new feel in Juneau this year due to recent events that were cause for celebration and concern.
A colorful high-flying tribute was offered as seven flags — representing Alaska, the U.S. and five major military branches — were raised for the first time at the just-revamped Southeast Alaska Native Veterans Memorial Park at 11 a.m. Tuesday outside Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall. Additional speeches and tributes, Native dancing, and a meal of deer stew were offered to the roughly 200 people gathering afterward inside the convention hall.
"I just want to say it's been an incredible labor of love for all the folks that have been involved with the project," Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson, president of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, told people inside the hall. "It's easy for me to stand up and say how much we love our veterans, but I can tell you each and every one of the folks involved with that project — I think I speak for all them, too — they've been very excited to be doing this project, and I know we're all really excited for this next spring to be raising totem poles out there. And really I think it put this memorial on the map and that recognition for our veterans."
The multiyear rebuilding of the memorial park, featuring curved honor walls and engraved stones, will also have two totem poles honoring veterans and commemorative plaques honoring military branches as part of the next phase of the project, according to Tlingit and Haida officials.
Two keynote speakers focused on the roles veterans have served over many decades and how that service has been acknowledged. U.S. Army Col. Erica Iverson, scheduled to retire next year after 26 years of service, asked those in the room who served in the Vietnam War to raise their hands, noting this is the 50th anniversary of the end of that conflict and many soldiers still haven’t received proper appreciation.
"The Vietnam veterans didn't get the thank you that my generation — we have in Afghanistan and other global war on terrorism veterans — and we've been exposed to that ‘Thank you for our service,’" she said. "But this is to our Vietnam vets especially: Thank you — you’re true heroes. And we want to always continue to acknowledge that to you today."
Iverson also assisted Ray Wilson, 92, in performing his longtime local tradition of laying ceremonial wreaths as a surviving Korean War veteran. He was served stew by Theryn Todeschi, a local Native Youth Olympics student, with area hunters Kamari Lafferty and Don Yates providing the deer used to make the meal.
Vietnam and its aftermath were highlighted in a different way by the other keynote speaker, retired U.S. Air Force Col. Jeff Philippart, who is now president of Huna Tek Operations Services.
"One of the things that I think is a legacy from Vietnam that we don't really think about as much is that after Vietnam the United States decided to go to an all-volunteer force," he said. "What that means is that everybody who has served in the armed forces since the end of the Vietnam conflict — so the last 50 years — those people have raised their right hand voluntarily to serve and protect our country."
Participation in this year’s Southeast Alaska Native Veterans gathering was notably higher than recent years, perhaps in part due to the debut of the newly reopened memorial park, said Stephanie Banua, who as Tlingit and Haida’s director of facilities oversaw the project. She also credited a community outreach effort by a multitude of collaborating partners including Sealaska, Goldbelt, Huna Totem Corp., and Camp 70 of the Alaska Native Brotherhood’s and Sisterhood’s Camp 70.
Cmdr. William Ozzie Sheakley, who organized the events for this year’s ceremony, said he kept his focus on traditional observances aside from the debut flag raising at the renovated park. And choosing who would be the first to raise the flags at the new poles was easy.
"What I had was just the first seven people who came in to volunteer," he said, noting there were plenty of other ceremonial duties to be performed during the day.
A short distance away at Centennial Hall another traditional ceremony took place at the same time with VFW Taku Post 5559 and American Legion Post 25 co-hosting a ceremony featuring retired Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Corey Louton as the keynote speaker.
Concerns about conflict on anniversary of peace
A gathering with a markedly different tone took place in front of the Alaska State Capitol on Tuesday morning, where about 25 people participated in the annual observance of Armistice Day by the Juneau chapter of Veterans of Peace.
At 11 a.m. the participants rang to bell in front of the Capitol to mark the anniversary of an armistice signing on Nov. 11, 1919, that ended World War I — in keeping with the spirit of what was an annual Armistice Day holiday until it was changed to Veterans Day in 1954 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
But that focus on peace meant deep concerns were expressed in a speech before the bell ringing by Craig Wilson, president of the local chapter, due to military activities since President Donald Trump began his second term in January. That includes U.S. troops being sent to cities for immigration and other domestic law enforcement, and killing dozens of people with attacks on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
"As veterans we swore to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic," Wilson said. "That means reclaiming Armistice Day as a day to honor not only the dead of past wars, but the living who still suffer under empire-building kings, whether it's Palestinians, Latin Americans, Indigenous peoples, migrants, minority communities, or service members who dare to question unlawful orders."
"It's up to us to remind our leaders that the best way to support the troops is not to use them as blunt force foreign policy tools, not to send them to get killed invading other countries, and not to use them as your own personal gestapo here in the U.S. It's up to us to remind our leaders that the rule of law matters. It's up to us to make America better by remembering and honoring the sacrifices of veterans, that their efforts for peace were not in vain. It's up to us to wage peace, not war."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
