Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
MEMBERS OF Ironwood's JROTC battalion, from left, Command Sgt. Maj. Jacquelyn Wiemeri, 1st Sgt. Alyssa Roberts, Capt. Cole Brunell, Sgt. Joseph Lehto, Capt. Emily Carey and Maj. Sophia Halverson fold an American flag Monday during Ironwood's Veterans Day ceremony.
By RICHARD JENKINS
Ironwood - A day after Veterans Day, the community gathered in Luther L. Wright's John Krznarich gymnasium Monday as the Ironwood Area Schools held its annual celebration to honor the area's veterans.
Following the introduction of colors, national anthem and performance by the middle and high school bands, JROTC Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Hayley Jarocki introduced guest speaker, Staff Sgt. Michael Arneson.
A Colorado native, Arneson enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2003 and worked with Chinook helicopters in Afghanistan and Iraq before being assigned to the Ironwood recruiting station.
Arneson reminded the audience of president Calvin Coolidge's quote, "The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten."
"Well, America does not have that problem," Arneson said, referring to events such as Monday's ceremony.
Even so, Arneson said the nation currently has the largest population of young veterans since Vietnam, and he urged the audience to continue to support those veterans as they transition out of the military.
After Arneson spoke, the sixth grade choir performed and a group of cadets from the JROTC battalion performed a flag-folding ceremony, with Jarocki telling the audience what each of the 13 folds symbolizes.
JROTC Maj. Shawna Jackson then read the list of names of the 133 area veterans who died over the past calendar year.
