By Kathleen Szczepanik
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
Veterans Day will not go unnoticed at Seabrook. On November 11 at 11 a.m., there will be a ceremony to remember all those who served in the armed forces.
“We plan to thank our veterans,” says Susan Coulson, community resources manager. “We will sing patriotic songs, pray, and listen to a short presentation followed by refreshments.”
Retired Army Colonel Alvin L. Meredith, who lives at Seabrook, volunteered to speak at the Veterans Day ceremony.
“I will give the history of Veterans Day, highlight Korea and what a shame it was that the Vietnam veterans were not welcomed home the way World War II veterans were,” he says. “People have to remember that this is not a day to hit the mall and shop the sales. There were a lot of sacrifices that were made to ensure our present-day freedoms.
“Veterans Day should be a day to acknowledge those who served by simply saying ‘thank you,’” he says. “It goes a long way.”
A few good women
When Barbara Gardner Cox and about a dozen of her “girls” get together every Monday night for dinner, they talk about the good old days and their service to our country, keeping the spirit of Veterans Day alive all year long.
“I think Veterans Day means more to us than the average citizen because we were a part of it,” Cox says. “There’s a pride for having served that will stay with you forever.”
It was January 1943 when Cox (Gardner at the time) was a high school teacher in Claremont, N.H., and decided to volunteer for the service as a Navy WAVE (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service).
“I had a junior homeroom of all boys, and one day, they just weren’t there—and I knew that I had to do something,” Cox says. “I begged my parents to let me join the WAVES.”
Cox completed boot camp at Hunter College in the Bronx and then attended parachute rigger training at Lakehurst Naval Air Station here in New Jersey before being stationed at Wold Chamberlain Field in Minneapolis, MN.