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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 2020)
OPINION Blue Mountain Eagle A4 Wednesday, November 11, 2020 Same paper, new printer they should be finalized and approved by close of business Monday. Classified text ads will still be accepted until 10 a.m. Mon- day mornings. The deadline for legal notices, letters to the editor, event listings and other news items remains 5 p.m. Fridays. Always submit any obituar- ies as soon as you can. If they are over 300 words, they must be built as ads and paid for, so they need to be in first thing Monday morning to meet ad deadlines. If they are under 300 words, they are free and we’ll do our best to get them in that week’s paper, but we cannot guarantee that if they are not received by first thing Monday morning. If you have any questions about the printer switch or new deadlines, give us a call at 541-575-0710. News and general questions can also be directed to editor@ bmeagle.com. Advertising questions can be directed to ads@bmeagle.com. Account, payment, classi- fied, legal notice and other cus- tomer service questions can be directed to office@bmeagle. com. The same local team from the same local company will respond to all of your questions. Kim Kell, Alix Hand, Ste- ven Mitchell, Rudy Diaz and our dependable delivery driver Gary Gregg look forward to continuing to serve you. The Eagle has been in this community for more than 150 years, and this change will help ensure we’re here for the next 150. Thank you for your support, and thank you for reading the Blue Mountain Eagle. T he Blue Mountain Eagle will be printed on a different press going forward, but the same people will still be creating the same newspaper for our customers. With a change in the eco- nomic outlook, the Eagle’s parent company, EO Media Group, is switching printing operations for efficiency. The Eagle will now be printed in Prineville, but little will change for our customers. The same local staff will be creating the same newspaper covering Grant County issues to be delivered by mail on the same day, every Wednes- day. (This week, the paper was delayed to subscribers because the post office was closed Wednesday for the Veterans Day holiday.) There will be a couple changes our customers may notice. The newspaper pages will be about an inch shorter than our old editions. But don’t worry. We will still fill those pages with your local news. Our deadlines will also be a few hours earlier than they were previously. We will now be finishing up the newspaper first thing Tuesday mornings. Please try to get all adver- tising, event listings and news information to us as soon as possible to ensure we have time to take care of it. If you know you’d like to get some- thing in the paper, reach out to us ahead of time to let us know or inquire about deadlines. When possible, sched- ule all advertising by the Fri- day before publication. Any last-minute advertising for our Wednesday edition needs to be scheduled by first thing Mon- day morning. Once ads are scheduled, GUEST COMMENT ‘We thank you for your service’ T his Veterans Day across the nation, for the first time since the holiday was conceived in November 1919, there will be no large ceremonies in big cities and small towns in observance to prop- erly express our gratitude and appre- ciate of our country’s brave men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces. Instead, 2020 will long be remembered as a year of tremen- dous change and challenge for our nation. Yet, this year also nota- bly marks 75 years since the end of another historic global event that united our country: the end of World War II and the subsequent creation of the Oregon Department of Veter- ans’ Affairs in 1945. One of the most poignant aspects of our Oregon veteran community is that it is as diverse and united as the nation we serve. Whether you are one of the 300,000 Oregon veterans who served in the trenches of Europe, the mountains of Korea, the jun- gles of Asia, the deserts of the Mid- dle East or anywhere in between; on (or beneath) the world’s oceans, or in the skies above; here at home or overseas, in wartime or in peace; you are part of an unbroken chain of patriots who have served this coun- try with honor through the history of our nation. Every day, even after their mil- itary service, our veterans ensure America remains strong. Every day, they employ their hard-earned lead- ership skills and continue to serve their communities. Our veterans are moms and dads, teachers and doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs, social workers and community leaders. They are the heroes of a peaceful nation who answered the call and returned to live in the land they defended. Heroes like World War II para- trooper Bill Wingett — though he never embraced that distinction. Private First Class Wingett was one of the origi- nal members of Easy Company of Kelly the 101st Airborne Fitzpatrick Division’s 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, a unit made famous by the book and HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers.” On June 6, 1944, he was one of 17,000 paratroopers to perform a night jump behind enemy lines five hours before the historic beach- head assault began. Along with other paratroopers from the 101st, he fought his way through to Nor- mandy. He also served with honor in the Battle of the Bulge, the Battle of Bastogne and other pivotal conflicts until the war ended. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his bravery during the Bat- tle of Brecourt Manor and earned three Purple Hearts in separate engagements. Sadly, Bill passed away just a few weeks ago at his home in Leba- non. He was 98. The veterans of the Greatest Generation, serving nearly eight decades ago, are vanishing at a star- tling rate, as are the veterans of the Korean War generation. Just five years ago, there were more than 17,000 WWII veterans living in the state of Oregon. Today, there are fewer than 6,000. Their contribu- tion and example must never fade from our awareness. The nation and the world they fought to protect will endure because of their service and deep sacrifices. Today, we also remember our fellow Americans missing in action, whose fate is still undetermined. We will not rest until we have made the fullest possible accounting for every life that was given in pursuit of our freedoms and preserving democracy. We also pause to remember the men and women who did not live to be called “veterans.” Many of them rest in the hearts of our national cemeteries. We also honor the families of the lost, who carry a burden of grief that time may lighten, but never lift, as well as all veterans’ family mem- bers. Their loved ones placed duty and country before their own lives. America is known as the land of the free and the home of the brave, but this was never a given. This rep- utation was earned by the blood and sweat of patriots who, genera- tion after generation, dedicate them- selves to keeping our nation safe, strong and free. What veterans have given our country is beyond our power to fully repay, yet, today we pause as a nation to recognize our debt. This Veterans Day, although we must adjust how we celebrate, I encourage you to join me, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and other veterans and civic leaders as we mark this important observation with our first- ever virtual Statewide Veterans Day celebration. The event will be streamed on the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ Facebook page beginning at 11 a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 11. I hope you are able to join us as we honor and celebrate all of our nation’s veterans. Finally, on behalf of the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs and a grateful state and nation, on this day and every day, we thank you for your service. Kelly Fitzpatrick is the director of the Oregon Department of Veter- ans’ Affairs and Gov. Kate Brown’s policy advisor on veterans’ issues. She is a retired Army officer. Her military awards and decorations include multiple awards of the Mer- itorious Service Medal, the South- west Asia Service Medal and the Army Parachutist Badge. GUEST COMMENT Vets bring unique skills to recovery A Blue Mountain EAGLE USPS 226-340 Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper Email: www.MyEagleNews.com Phone: 541-575-0710 John Day, Oregon MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION E DITOR & G ENERAL M ANAGER R EPORTER R EPORTER S PORTS M ARKETING R EP O FFICE A SSISTANT Sean Hart, editor@bmeagle.com Rudy Diaz, rudy@bmeagle.com Steven Mitchell, steven@bmeagle.com sports@bmeagle.com Kim Kell, ads@bmeagle.com Alixandra Hand, office@bmeagle.com PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY BY EO Media Group POSTMASTER — send address changes to Blue Mountain Eagle 195 N. Canyon Blvd. John Day, OR 97845-1187 Copyright © 2020 Blue Mountain Eagle Periodicals Postage Paid at John Day and additional mailing offices. 1 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION RATES (including online access) Grant County .....................................$45 Everywhere else in U.S. .....................$57 Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery All rights reserved. No part of this publication covered by the copyright hereon may be repro- duced or copied in any form or by any means — graphic, electronic or mechanical, including pho- tocopying, taping or information storage and retrieval systems — without written permission of the publisher. www.facebook.com/MyEagleNews @MyEagleNews s we approach Veterans Day, it’s important to honor the contributions of service mem- bers and veterans to our safety and security; and, to acknowledge the skills and perspective veteran-owned small businesses bring to the business world. Nearly one in 10 small businesses is owned by a veteran. Collectively, they contribute more than $1 trillion to our nation’s economy. In fact, as we navigate through an unprecedented economic environment, the experi- ence veterans bring from their military service greatly benefits our ability to weather the storm and persist. This is due to the adaptability vet- eran-owned small business owners bring from their service. Similar to many situations encountered in mili- tary service, we are in a rapidly mov- ing and changing environment. In mil- itary service, the situation can quickly change, and service members need to immediately access the situation and change course to survive. The same is true for many small business owners who find themselves in a similar unfa- miliar environment. While veterans’ ability to adapt serves them well in business, it does not mean they need to go about it alone. The same way that veter- ans relied on their unit to collec- tively problem-solve and accomplish their mission, vet- eran-owned small business owners have a network of organizations dedi- cated to the success of their business. Jeremy Field As a veteran [Steve] who ran businesses without SBA help, I under- stand the great need for the SBA and its resource partners. I was not as success- ful in my businesses Steve Watts as I could have been. So I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was four years ago when I became employed by the Region X Veterans Business Outreach Cen- ter and learned about the training and coaching available to veterans, their spouses and other eligible persons. Moreover, I was very pleased to learn the Department of Defense upped the transition program since I separated. When I left the service, transition training for exiting ser- vice members was almost a full day. Now, it is longer to include various tracks, including the two-day intro- duction to entrepreneurship course we offer — called Boots to Busi- ness — that both service members and spouses can take. In fact, in Fis- cal Year 2020 alone, there were more than 21,000 participants in the Boots to Business program, an all-time record. The U.S. Small Business Admin- istration and Veterans Business Out- reach Center team up to support vet- erans in Oregon at every stage of their business life cycle. Whether it’s one- on-one business advising, webinars on various business topics, access to financing — like the approximately $835 million in SBA loans that went to veterans nationwide during Fis- cal Year 2020 or the two-day Boots to Business program — our organiza- tions work together to empower veter- ans, active duty service members and military spouses to live the American Dream of business ownership. As we look forward, the SBA and VBOC are proud to serve our state’s veteran-owned small busi- nesses toward a successful “mission accomplished.” Jeremy Field is the regional administrator for the U.S. Small Busi- ness Administration Pacific Northwest Region, which serves Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska. Steve Watts-Oelrich is an Air Force veteran and director of the Vet- erans Business Outreach Center , a program of Business Impact NW in partnership with the U.S. Small Busi- ness Administration.
