MANSFIELD – On the 11th day of the 11th month, in the 11th hour in downtown Mansfield, a question was asked: What is a veteran?
A crowd of locals gathered to honor the service of America’s military past and present gathered their coats and scarves closer against the November chill, and pondered the question. Men and women donned caps and jackets, old uniforms and pins, covering bodies long past their prime from the service and wondered to themselves, what makes me a veteran?
For keynote speaker Lt. Col. Molly Doss, retired from the United States Air Force, the answer was simple.
“Veterans are the ones who are willing to give their lives for their country, for our way of life and for their families,” Doss said. “The thing that separates the veteran is that willingness to do what it takes for the good of the country.”
Richland County recognized all of these veterans on Friday with the annual Veterans Day Parade. Beginning on Marion Avenue at the five-way intersection, the parade traveled down Park Avenue West to Central Park.
Approximately 40 units marched in Friday’s parade. Joining area veteran’s groups was an assortment of police cars, color guards, fire trucks and military equipment. The soundtrack of the parade came from marching bands from Mansfield Senior High School, St. Peter’s High School and Clear Fork High School.
Once downtown, the 40&8 Boxcar fired off 11 volleys, one per minute, to honor all veterans starting at 10:50 a.m. Then at 11 a.m. began the official Veterans Day ceremony, presented by the Richland County Joint Veterans Council, with Doss as the keynote speaker.
Not all veterans recognize the distinction between serving and willingness to serve, Doss said. Some may feel they don’t deserve veteran status because they never saw combat. That doesn’t matter, according to Doss.
“Nobody sits out a war, and nobody sits out being in the military,” said Doss. “I did 20 years in peacetime; I didn’t go to any wars, I didn’t shoot at anybody, but I was prepared. I think that’s the biggest thing that separates a veteran from everybody else.”
Doss earned her veteran’s status through her service in the U.S. Air Force from 1978 through 1998. As an Air Weapons Controller/Command and Control Officer, she was stationed in Germany, Florida, Korea, Alaska and Canada. She retired in 1998 as lieutenant colonel.
Not only are veterans willing to give their lives, Doss noted, but they are also willing to take the lives of others in service to their country. That can weigh heavy on a veteran’s mind.
“It puts a tough moral burden on a soldier, to know the next day maybe I’ll be dead, or maybe I’m going to have to kill someone else,” Doss said. “That’s huge. I respect every veteran because of that.”
Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans. Originally known as Armistice Day, it is annually celebrated on the 11th day of the 11th month because that is the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. In 1954, the holiday was changed to “Veterans Day.”
When you look at a veteran, Doss said, you see someone who does not think so much of themselves. She challenged all those present on Friday to remember that veterans are the ones willing to do what it takes.
“I hope everybody else, if the time comes in this country, is willing to step up and do what it takes to keep our country safe, unified and free for everybody,” Doss said.
