On Veterans Day, we thank our neighbors
On Tuesday morning, some 200 veterans and families packed the gymnasium at American Canyon Middle School in honor of this year’s Veterans Day celebration.
The city is home to more than 800 veterans, around 5% of the total population. Watch a city council meeting, attend church service, stop in at the chamber of commerce — most of the people at work are veterans. Many of our first responders on the Community Emergency Response Team team, fire department, and police department are veterans.
“The service does not stop – it simply changes form,” said Brando Cruz, an American Canyon city councilmember and U.S. Air Force veteran. “Their uniforms may be folded away but their devotion to duty remains constant.”
Veterans Day, he said, “reminds us that when our service members come home, their mission doesn’t end. The same courage, integrity and teamwork that guided them in uniform continue to guide them as neighbors, mentors and leaders.”
Around the room, veterans had on snapbacks bearing their service locations: Iraq, Vietnam, Korea. Sharing the bleachers were the choirs from American Canyon High School who performed the national anthem, and the middle school, which performed a medley of army tunes.
The annual ceremony is brief, just an hour. But on Tuesday, time moved slowly thanks to the peaceful, reflective words of a number of speakers, among them, Pastor Lawrence Ixum from the Family Worship Center Pentecostal Church, Supervisor Belia Ramos on behalf of Rep. Mark Thompson, Senator Christopher Cabaldon, Vice Mayor Mark Joseph, speaking on behalf of Mayor Pierre Washington — five of whom are themselves veterans.
“We often think we know what a hero is,” Cabaldon told the room. “But true heroes are those who are risking it all … who have their entire lives ahead of them and yet sign up to defend their neighbors, their families, their friends and their communities and their countries, knowing that any moment, there may be no sequel.”
Veterans Day was founded as Armistice Day at the end of World War I, when world powers signed an agreement to cease fighting. Along with honoring veterans, the day exists to “recognize the importance of peace,” said Ramos, reading from a statement drafted by Rep. Thompson.
Each year, the day brings latent emotions to the surface for those who served and their loved ones. Lucila and Eduardo Datiles, an American Canyon couple, smiled and greeted friends throughout the ceremony. Discussing the holiday inevitably brought up the difficulties they faced during Eduardo’s time in the U.S. Navy.
“It was hard,” Lucila told the Current. Eduardo served as a hospital corpsman for 20 years. They have two sons together.
Eduardo, who is quick to smile, recounted some of his career. He began in 1985, placed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego and other sites for training before being stationed in Okinawa then Thailand and Iraq.
Eduardo had to be able to patch someone up on a dime. “Everything’s an emergency. You have to sort it,” he said. He and a driver would pack supplies into a five-ton truck and join soldiers on the field in training or in combat. “We had 12 cans of different kinds of medicines, IV bags, and a tent to set up,” he said. A major illness he frequently treated was pneumonia, meaning antibiotics had to be in steady supply.
“[Iraq] was the hardest one,” Lucila said. “We didn’t know where he was.” Eduardo nodded, wiping his eyes. When he returned in 2005, Lucila said, “he was never the same. My doctor said: ‘Leave him alone. Don’t ask him anything. The time will come when he’s ready to talk about it.’”
Eduardo and Lucila agreed that American Canyon’s strong veteran community makes a supportive network for the family.
Today, people from all over Napa and Solano counties continue to join. Jesus Escobar, a recruiter at Main Street’s U.S. Army Career Center, said he sees a range of ages at his desk each week, some as young as 17, some 40.
In his speech, Brando Cruz recalled his service in Saudi Arabia enforcing a no-fly zone over Iraq. In the quiet moments of his long shifts, he said, he had an epiphany.
“I discovered the true meaning of service,” he told the crowd. “It isn’t comfort or recognition that defines it. It’s commitment … Freedom endures because someone is always willing to stand the line.”
