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
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Rudy Diaz, rudy@bmeagle.com
Steven Mitchell, steven@bmeagle.com
sports@bmeagle.com
Kim Kell, ads@bmeagle.com
Alixandra Hand, office@bmeagle.com
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Blue Mountain Eagle
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@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.