On Saturday November 7th, Jacki and I were able to perform and speak for the Veterans Day program. I was able to speak about what freedom means to me. After recently reading books about women living in Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran, I have more poignantly felt what freedom as an American means and loved having the opportunity to convey that in my speech.
Following the program, we took pictures with vehicles from World War Two and the Vietnam War and met a few members of the family who owns them. It was incredible seeing vehicles that were actually part of events that I've only read about in high school history classes! It kind of hits you like a ton of bricks, that this was real life.
On actual Veterans Day, the royalty and I attended the program at the Orem City Cemetery honoring our veterans. The Mountain View and Orem High School bands played the military anthems while our veterans raised the flags of each branch of the military. We then listened to our key notes speaker: Vietnam veteran Rick Nye. Rick recounted several experiences of his platoon in Vietnam to the crowd.
What's amazing about Rick Nye and all veterans is that not only do they sacrifice time with their families, but they also sacrifice their psychological well-being. Rick Nye has suffered from PTSD for decades, and is constantly on edge, and many if not most other veterans suffer from this as well. They deal with the memories, the nightmares, on a daily basis and they did and do it all for the United States of America. How easy it is to disregard the struggle they experience daily.
Today I am grateful for these veterans. So many suffer from repercussions they can never escape, some lost their comrades in battle, some saw things we can only imagine. They did it for us, and because of their service we do not have to succumb to authoritarian rule, or servitude to another world power. May we never forget!
Love,
Jesse Craig
Miss Orem 2015-2016
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