5
Veterans' Day
'M time to remember war, and pray for peace
P rì H i E
ClACkAMAS
WEdNEsdAy, N ovemòer 8, 2000
P r ÌNT
TAM OLIVER
Feature Co-Editor
Clackamas Community College
gZ will be closed Friday, Nov. 10, in
SLhonor of Veterans’ Day, a na-
Sj M
tional holiday originating with
the signing of an armistice, be-
tween the Allies and Germany, to
UBi-ind World War I.
Z Twhen the armistice was signed
on.'the eleventh hour of the elev
enth day of the eleventh month
of the year” in 1918, it was prayed
that the end of this “war to end
all wars” would signify the be-
’ ginning of world peace. A year
K latjer, November 11 was named
HE Arimistice Day. It was intended
year, merchants would suspend
business transactions for two
minutes to honor the soldiers
that had fought for America.
In 1921, following the burial of
an unidentified French soldier at
the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and
the burial of an unidentified En
glish soldier at Westminster Ab
bey in London, an unnamed sol
dier was buried at Arlington Na
tional Cemetery in Washington,
DC. This gravesite became the
focal point for the national ob
servance of Armistice Day.
Hopes for peace
Hopes for world peace were
shattered only a few years after
Armistice Day was proclaimed a
national holiday in 1938. The be
ginning of World War II
drummed out the message that
world peace is a difficult goal to
attain.
In 1954, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower signed a bill to
change the name of the holiday
to Veterans’ Day, in order to
honor all Americans who have
served their country during
wars.
Unknown Soldiers. It is guarded
Arlington tr><Iay
day and night by an honQ.r.-—-An aipphitheatre surrounds the
guard that silently keeps
| tomb. Qr^VàBrans’Day, attera color
over the symbols/q^affiftrppH*~ guardcdn^isting^jf members
__ i _____ £ from
_____
cans who have^MCw^ liV?s -» all military services plays “taps”, a
in America’sy^ui^^zi W-V';-
: \ ceremony takes^tf&^\iside, usu-
After the Viethan/Waf; memo- » ally honored with the presence of
rial cereiftpA^s across the die country’s highest pfffees.
country began to shift their'
Ibis holiday has been so dear to
focus to ipaaee rather tharr the people of America that when
marching
Friendsvpft&y Congress passed a lav£m( I968 to
ten quietlyittót the Vietnam
change its observanceiolhe fourth
Tomb of the Unknowns
Memorial, which is referred to by
Mondamin OctoWri,Aray a few
many as “Thè, Waft,” and rela
years passed,beft>r& nyany states
tives who wah.t^tp'tpuch thè Returned to oljffer^tn^ it on Nov.
names of theipJ&yt^ph^4fi£^ ¡KI, Due to theistrong nationally
Today, four unidentified sol
diers are buried at Arlington in
honor of World War I, World
War II, the Korean War and the
Vietnam War, and the site has be
come known as the Tomb of the
scribed in the stark,gran--—sentiment, the federal govern-
ite wall line up by the thousands E meni changed the date back to
every year at the memorial.
975
J..
ftlackamas Army veteran practices heroism daily
I I
G
that at 11 a.m. on this date every
SANDY LUPO
Opinion Editor
Clackamas student Jennifer
Eskola, age 30, has always taken
ts
trai
.
ertM
;ceJ
trail
d i|
mel
tfl
s rtl
deol
the road less traveled.
After a year in college in Ken
tucky, Jennifer entered the United
States Army in 1990, when women
were still a real minority in the mili
tary. She served out her two-year
enlistment in Korea, where she
chose to live among the Korean
people rather than on the army
post, experiencing local buses,
trains and other conveniences
(and inconveniences). She left the
army as a PFC (private first class).
“Not bad for two years,” she re
marked, grinning.
After being diagnosed with leu
kemia three years ago, Eskola
close to enter a test study at Or
egon Health Sciences University
(OHSU), and is one of four people
in the world in complete remission
after treatment with the drug
ST571, scheduled for Federal Drug
Administration (FDA) approval Administration, for her military ser-
next January.
Today, Eskola is a full-time wife
“You still see some flak when
to her husband Cliff, mother toiler^/ people hear you are a veteran,” sjie
five year old daughter Ayinter?'*?, <1; remarked, “like they think we’re
in kindergarten, ahef sthdent ih going to get a free ride.”
Clackamas’ Microelectronics Sys- * While Eskola loved the hard
tern Technology .program, where physical life in the Army, she Icftit
she plans to earn her associate of with a bum knee from the running,
applied sciencedegree,“ I
and a badly healed dislocated
No military, no freedom
When askedwhat she would like
to have Clackamas students under-
stand this Veterans’ Day, about
serving in the military, Eskola spoke
shoulder that has since required
surgSjry. ifiose injuries ended her
previous pastime of kayaking,
And _ she
still owes $3000 for
-L.3T222
7. her
ffrst bone marrow after her leuke-
proudly.
mia diagnosis, which her Army
“The people who serve are the medical benefits did not cover.
ones who make things possible (in
“I’m a true, veteran,” she
America). If we did ript have the equipped, “painfully brpke.’’,^
.....
j not
--1 be
1-- free-
r--- ’
Despite insufficient medical and
military, therewould
dom. Everybody in the military'con- " educational veterans benefits,-
Eskola would not trade her s„qr^l®
tri butes, regardless of whht they
lo her country.
do—a lot of time peopledoi^t
alize the lowest person is still Valwig ?“Pthink^y®^bbdy‘'sbthld sews
/Z-
, two years,” she said, “because
able,” she remarked.
Eskola is grateful for and sensjyr^^etB-loLntor^ understanding
tive to educational assistance she for what you have. You take more
now receives from the Veterans’
pride in your country; you have
more of a stake in it. It’s something
that gets in your heart and won’t
let go. I still get mad if I see a uni
form that doesn’t look nice, or see
a soldier walk into a building with
his hat on—‘take that hat off,’ I
say, ‘you are representing us all’.”
’CrfQ ^nce a soldier...
“Once a soldier, always a sol
dier* sfieexclaimed.
Eskola and her family live in
Hillsboro. Holidays and birth
days “mean a lot more” since the
leukemia was diagnosed, and
Eskfola^&erv active in her
church with the teen outreach
pr|ig®m^.S»Siie teaches Sunday
school and has started a cancer
support group.
The OHSU leukemia study re-
quires blood tests every three to
five weeks, and bone marrows, for
which Eskola must be sedated, ev-
ery three months, but Eskola takes
these interruptions in stride. She
looks forward to finishing school,
and perhaps starting a small busi
ness with other veterans in the
MIKE POLLOCK I Clackamas Print
Jennifer Eskola hopes for
recognition of veterans.
microelectronics program. The
comradeship with fellow veterans
is central to Eskola, as the military
service was central to her life. She
hopes students will recognize the
contributions of all veterans.
“When you think of a veteran,
don’t just think of a name on a
wall, or at a nice grave," Eskola
said.
“ They (veterans) all did their time;
they all were willing to say ‘ I would
give my life for my country’.”
‘■JSS Cole tragedy stirs memories and concerns
ti:
On Oct. 12,2000, 17 U.S. sailors
re died and 39 were injured as the ship
thi: they were stationed on, the USS
ists. A bomb explosion ripped a hole
in the port side of the guided missile
, destroyer, rendering the ship immo-
. ! bile. The crew consisted of 26 offic
ers and 296 en listed crewmembers.
■ Thé US Navy is probably the
most feared and well-organized mili-
tary might in the world today. Ask
almost anyone, and the answer is,
I no one has a more powerful military
II arsenal. But how much assurance
(
I ■ does someone going into the Navy
have that he is safe?
I During my four-year stint with the
US Navy, from 1995-99,1 was in war
lime conditions with an attack on my
ship possible at any time. I also
rved during peacetime. 1 had a deep
fear at times because my ship, an
aircraft carrier, was be a very large
and possible tar
get for Iraq when
ve were called off
)ur deployment
0 the Persian Gulf
or air support in
Operation Desert
Jhield.
Even with all the
tate of the art
;quipment
onboard, long-range tracking arid
the ability to shoot down any air
craft inbound, the threat of danger
was still very real to me.
Injury and death
The USS Cole suffered what
any sailor fears worst while on
board a ship—a surprise attack
and injury and death to fellow
sailors. I cannot imagine what
was going through the minds of
the sailors on board the Cole
when the bomb blasted off. Were
they going about their daily
duties, following the routines they
performed each day? Were they
enjoying chow below decks,
laughing and joking with friends?
Were they on watch, thinking the
routine refueling and re-supply
would be over soon and they
would be back to sea running drills
and continuing to their next port?
And suddenly chaos
The next minute, chaos sur
rounded them as a large blast
rocked the small attack destroyer.
Fol lowing was not the silence that
reassures everyone that every
thing is all right; but instead the
alarms and screams from fellow
comrades that tell you everything
is not all right.
There are drills and procedures
to train naval personnel on board
a naval ship to deal with such inci
dents., Dog hatches. Lockdown
doors. Prepare for the worst. But
drills cannot prepare a sailor for
his reactions and feelings when
the real deal happens. Especially
when he trusted the ship was safe;
they were safe, in a friendly port.
I lost four friends while at sea,
and each was a loss greater than I
thought I could handle. Two of them
died while running ops on deck dur
ing the Desert Shield Operation.
Neither could have been saved.
Even though I believed I could
have possibly done something to
prevent if, there was nothing I
could have done. Both men had
launched and trapped aircraft hun
dreds of times; they knew what
they were doing. But in a danger
ous environment like an aircraft
carrier’s flight deck, accidents can
happen at anytime. I learned the
hard way, by losing close friends.
In peacetime, I lost two other
friends. One was doing routine
checks on fire-seal safety, the
other was lost overboard. None
ever thought about what kind of
danger he might have been in, and
realistically, no one in the Navy
ever does, until its too late.
The Navy may be a huge super
power, but no one in the Navy is
ever truly safe. Most have a false
sense of security. Because the US
is feared worldwide for its military
power, we have nothing to fear, we
are protected. So we think. Just
because we have a mighty hand
to crush our enemies does not
mean our hand cannot be burned
or broken. No one really thinks that
anyone, in any job, is at risk of injury
or death at anytime. And in the Navy,
risks are largely increased.
The sailors on the USS Cole who lost
their lives were brave and honorable,
just as my friends were, buttheir deaths
were not justified.
I understand firsthand how hard
Navy life can be, not only physi
cally but also mentally. And not
until I had finished my first deploy
ment did I truly realize the losses
that attend to protecting freedom.
Nor did I really know how men
tally tough some issues are to deal
with. At the time, I was not ready
to accept those losses, as I am
sure some of the sailors on the USS
Cole are not ready today. Good or
bad, Navy experiences will be with
us our entire lives.
/ Maybe the odds are that some
disaster like the USS Cole will not
happen. But how do we tell that
& the brave men and women who
lost comrades on the USS Cole?
How do those who survived the
attack, who have to deal with the
horror and loss feel safe again?
Who is protecting these men
and women while they protect
all of us?