Thursday saw the 24th annual Veterans Day Assembly held in the Perry Performing Arts Center, with ceremonies beginning at 10 a.m. with the posting of the colors by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2060.
World War II veteran and Legion of Honor recipient Mahlon Conaway of Perry then led the assembled crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance, and “The Star-Spangled Banner” was sung by the Perry High School Select Choir under the directorship of Jenn Nelson.
Bosnia war veteran Mike Powell performed the duties of master of ceremonies, welcoming the audience and delivering brief opening remarks about the origin of America’s Veterans Day traditions and Perry High School’s local ceremonies, which began as a panel discussion among World War II veterans in 1989 and expanded into its current form in 1998.
A Quilt of Valor was bestowed on Korean War veteran Jim Beuter of Perry, with Perry Piecemakers Pat Mundy explaining the origin of the Quilts of Valor in 2003, when Catharine Roberts of Seaford, Delaware, sewed a quilt for her son deployed to Iraq. More than 200,000 Quilts of Valor have now been awarded.
While Perry Piecemakers Diane Caufield and Judy Tomenga wrapped Beuter in the healing warmth of his quilt, Perry Piecemaker Joanne Warnock read aloud the dedication:
Jim Beuter was drafted in 1951 into the Korean Conflict. He was sent to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, to be trained as a Forward Observer, a position with a life expectancy of two weeks. After training, he was sent to Korea on a troopship and then a train across Japan.
Jim was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division as a Personnel Administration Specialist in division headquarters, because of scoring high on aptitude tests, therefore spending a lot less time on the front lines.
The goal of Jim’s division was to push the North Koreans and the Chinese north and out of Korea. Moving northward for seven to eight months, they recaptured ravaged cities and countryside.
March 1953 was his end of service, and he retired as a sergeant. The trip home took 20 days, and they arrived in Seattle, Washington, where they received a grand welcome home with a ticker tape parade, bands and can-can dancers.
Jim married Loretta Corkery in July 1954. He farmed in the Tipton, Iowa, area and was nominated for Outstanding Young farmer in 1955. In 1961 he became a crop production specialist for Dallas County with Growmark. He then was promoted to Iowa regional sales manager for Growmark, responsible for sales and technical training of 20 salesmen in the state.
He retired in 1995 after receiving many sales awards and bonus trips he took with his wife. He attended the Honor Flight from Des Moines to Washington, D.C., in September 2017. Jim is 92 years young as of Oct. 30, 2021.
“A grateful nation welcomes you home,” Warnock said on behalf of the quilting guild and all thankful citizens.
The Perry High School and Perry Middle School Select Choir, under the directorship of PHS Vocal Music Director Jenn Nelson, then sang “A Tribute to the Armed Services,” with veterans rising from their seats when their branches’ anthems were sung.
PHS social studies teacher Gary Overla followed with a declamation of Shakespeare’s St. Crispin’s Day speech from “Henry V,” with its revered passage:
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition.
The roll call slide show, “Perry’s Band of Brothers and Sisters,” featuring Perry soldiers from the era of the U.S. Civil War to our modern military engagements, brought a warm response from the crowd.
The guest speaker at the 24th annual assembly was U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq war and newly elected Perry School Board member Eddie Diaz. Diaz spoke about the Marine Corps virtues of honor, courage and commitment, and he introduced three fellow Marines from Perry who embody these virtues: Mark Mintun, Jim Cornelius and John Powell.
John Powell served in the U.S. Marine Corps in a forward artillery unit. He said he was injured in combat Oct. 27, 1967, and spent seven months recovering.
Powell said there are more heroes in the world than war heroes, and he cited examples in the civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, who were lynched in June 1964 near Philadelphia, Miss.
He also praised such heroes as the First Responders who selflessly entered the World Trade Center buildings Sept. 11, 2001, as well as the single mother who works three jobs to provide for her children and the teachers, coaches and friends who are near at hand and are heroes of everyday life.
Following Powell, the five males from the select choir sang “Tell My Father,” by the Civil Wars duo. The lyrics say,
Tell my father that his son
Didn’t run or surrender,
That I bore his name with pride
As I tried to remember:
You are judged by what you do
While passing through.
As I rest ‘neath fields of green,
Let him lean on my shoulder.
Tell him how I spent my youth
So the truth could grow older.
Tell my father, when you can,
I was a man.
Tell him we will meet again
Where the angels learn to fly.
Tell him we will meet as men
For with honor did I die.
Tell him how I wore the blue
Proud and true, through the fire.
Tell my father, so he’ll know
I love him so.
Tell him we will meet again
Where the angels learn to fly.
Tell him we will meet as men
For with honor did I die.
Tell him how I wore the blue
Proud and true, like he taught me.
Tell my father not to cry.
Then say goodbye.
Perry Mayor John Andorf delivered a reading of the World War I poem, “In Flanders Field,” which commemorates the Nov. 18, 1918, Armistice that ended the Great War, in which about 20 million people died. The poem, written by the World War I Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, reads in part:
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
A recording of Esther Puderbaugh singing “This Land Is Your Land,” by Woody Guthrie, was accompanied by a slide show of Perry by Clare Marburger.
After closing remarks by Michael Powell, PHS students Janette Willet and Nate Lutterman played “Taps” prior to the retiring of the colors at the end of the program.
