Hartsville honors its veterans

Hartsville residents gathered to pay tribute to the nation’s military veterans Wednesday.

The Second Annual Veterans Day Program, sponsored by the Pilot Club of Hartsville, began promptly at 11:11 a.m. in keeping with the signing of the Armistice ending World War I at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.

Rain forced the program indoors. The program was originally scheduled to take place at Burry Park in downtown Hartsville but moved to the sanctuary of Wesley United Methodist Church downtown.

Robert Isom, an Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm U.S. Army veteran and featured speaker for the event, said he was honored to serve the nation in its military.

“As a soldier in the infantry, I was introduced to a lot of fun places, but I was introduced to a lot of places I’d really like to forget, too,” he said.

Isom had veterans in the audience stand to be recognized. “These are our protectors,” he said.

Isom said everyone who serves in the military sooner or later faces the question, “Why am I here?”

He said the answer to that question for him came in the faces of the young people seated in the audience. “I’m here for them. I’m here to protect their freedom, their way of life. I’m here because I’m a patriot,” he said.

The Rev. Terry Martin, pastor of Wesley UMN and himself a veteran, said he was confronted by that same question when he was in the Air Force. “I said I like to wear the uniform of my country,” he said.

“I grew up feeling that I grew up in a free country and received the benefits of living in a free country and that I owed a part of my life to that country,” Martin said.

Martin read a history of Veterans Day, which originally began as Armistice Day to honor the veterans of World War I. In 1954 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into a law a bill designating the day as Veterans Day in honor of all of the nation’s veterans, he said.

“It is with great pride and humility that this community gathers to honor these veterans,” he said.

State Sen. Gerald Malloy said the nation owes all of its freedoms to its veterans who have defended it for more than two centuries.

He recalled that as a youngster growing up in Chesterfield County he would see soldiers on training maneuvers in the area and said he always stopped to watch and gained inspiration from what he saw.

“The soldier is everything to America,” Malloy said.

Malloy also recognized Darlington County’s new Veterans Affairs Officer, Jimmy Williams, who succeeds Warner DeHart, who retired from the position this year.

DeHart read a poem written by the 12-year-old daughter of a Gulf War veteran.

“By gathering here today, we pay tribute to the best friends America has ever known, our veterans,” said state Rep. Jay Lucas.

“Each one has a story to tell, and each story makes you proud to be an American.”

Lucas also told the young people present that the preservation of the heritage of the nation’s veterans lies in their hands.

“The City of Hartsville takes its hat off to those that are here today and holds in our hearts those that are not here today,” said Mayor Mel Pennington.

The Hartsville High School Chorus sang “The Star Spangled Banner” and presented a work entitled “Homeward Bound” written expressly for returning Gulf War veterans.

The Coker College Singers performed “The God Who Gave Us Life.”

Students from the Hartsville High School Junior ROTC served as the color guard, and two trumpeters from the Hartsville High band closed the ceremony with the playing of “Taps.”

The Pilot Club began the Veterans Day Program in 2008 because no other public observances were taking place in the city to honor area veterans.

Organizers had early hoped to dedicate a Veterans Memorial the City of Hartsville plans to erect at Burry Park as a part of the ceremony, but funding shortages have delayed that project.