Ironton Sililoquy

Herald Dispatch – Thursday, Nov. 11,1965

Submitted by: Robert Kingrey

Flags out-Unfurl Old Glory-Show your colors-Remember when November 11^th was Armistice Day…. Remember when buglers stood on the steps at the post office and sounded colors at eleven o’clock in the morning… Most of those old buddies of yours and mine are gone.

What few are left will gather tonight at the Lawrence County Barracks, World War I Veterans, once more stand erect with right hand upon their breasts over their heart and repeat, "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Taps sounded for many old leaders of the American Legion who helped celebrate that first Armistice Day 46 years ago…

Many of Ironton’s most outstanding citizens of the past have been veterans. Living or dead, this is a day to honor war veterans. Just a few recalled today are Jim Hunter, drum major of the bugle corps, who lead many a parade on Ironton streets. Sheriff Bernard Monte who never missed a parade or a state or national convention of the Legion. Dr. George G. Hunter who never took a dime to help a veteran nor his family. It would be easy to go on and name a hundred more.

It was old Frank J. Goldcamp’s post back in 1926 that gave the first $500.00 in the campaign to build the high school stadium. It was the same organization that provided shoes and fed school children at soup kitchens during the jobless months before the New Deal. That same group of volunteers did the bulk of emergency relief work at the time of the 1937 flood.

Immediately following Pearl Harbor it was leaders of the Legion who organized civil defense, the auxiliary highway patrol, and were "Johnny on the spot," for every blackout and other needs on the home front.

Today is a time for thoughts for all those fine citizens, dead or alive – your friends and mine, the veterans who saved this nation so that Kate Smith might sing, " God Bless America."