Governor, veterans dedicate chapel
TOM MORTON Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 12:00 am
Wyoming has done much and will do more to support its veterans, service members and their families, Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Tuesday.
"The state needs to do the right thing by its citizens; the state needs to do the right thing by its veterans," Freudenthal told veterans and their families gathered at the newly expanded chapel at the Oregon Trail State Veterans Cemetery.
Toward that goal, Freudenthal will ask the Legislature to approve an additional $1 million for the Military Trust Fund to help families of Wyoming soldiers.
The state created the Military Trust Fund for emergency assistance when spouses are sent overseas, and it has about $5 million, he said.
But the need will escalate when 941 Wyoming National Guard soldiers will be deployed to Iraq and Kuwait next year, marking the largest single deployment from Wyoming probably since World War II.
Besides the loss of companionship, families lose a helping hand when the plumbing fails or other problems arise on the home front, Freudenthal said.
The fund offers financial assistance to those families to make the repairs, and puts the service members' minds at ease so they can better focus on the task at hand, he said.
Freudenthal also will ask the Legislature to approve additional funding for a World War II memorial for the Cody Veterans Park, he said.
Finally, he will ask for money so the Oregon Trail State Veterans Cemetery can buy caissons - two wheeled horse-drawn carriages to transport ammunition and caskets - to give funerals greater dignity, he said.
Those requests accompanied the dedication of the expanded chapel north of Evansville, which offers a better tribute for soldiers who died in combat and for those who have been lost to the sands of time, Freudenthal said.
He and other speakers noted Veterans Day this year marks the 90th anniversary of the armistice when nations fighting in World War I agreed to end hostilities on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, of 1918.
The nations also intended that series of 11s to mark the end of the conflict known as "the war to end all wars," Freudenthal said.
Time proved otherwise.
Men and women in uniform still stand between us and the nation's enemies, he said.
Freudenthal read from a devotional book of Abraham Lincoln who cited 2 Timothy 4:7-8, in which the apostle Paul wrote, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness. …"
The chapel shows its commitment to Wyoming's veterans and their families, Freudenthal said. "We can make sure that crown is there."
For the benediction, Bataan Death March survivor the Rev. Leonard Robinson prayed that people would continue to honor those in the military and "to remember in prayer those who are in the military, who are standing in the gap."
Smokie Lewallen, a Vietnam veteran who lives in Casper, said he's been coming to the chapel since its construction in 1982.
"It's always been standing room only," Lewallen said.
The expansion, and the commitment of veterans and their families speaks well of the people of central Wyoming to honor soldiers, which was something he didn't receive when he returned from Vietnam in the early 1970s, he said.
"I'm here today so the guys coming home don't have to go through what we went through," Lewallen said.
Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at Tom.Morton@trib.com.