New, Previously Deployed Veterans Serve on Veterans Day

By Staff Sgt. Jeff Lowry, Task Force 38 Public Affairs

"Honoring All Who Served." Many servicemembers, whether stateside or overseas, will do just that on Nov. 11. Whether a new combat veteran or one who served before, Task Force 38 Soldiers reflected on what the holiday meant to them. "It means more now that I'm a veteran," said Staff Sgt. Harold Brantley, a New Whiteland, Ind., resident and an information systems analyst for the task force.

The 2009 deployment was his second to Iraq, having first served in 2006 with the 38th Division Support Command in Baghdad. Celebrating his second Veterans Day in Iraq, he thinks Veterans Day is a special time for all Americans. "I think it gives people recognition who deserve recognition. It puts veterans in the forefront," he said.

For Brantley the holiday is also a time to honor and remember his father, a Soldier who served two tours in Korea and two tours in Vietnam. "The military was his life; that's what he did," said Brantley, who has been in the Indiana National Guard for 13 years. "He always talked highly about the military." For fellow task force Soldier and first time combat veteran, Sgt. Travis Lawler, the reasons to remember Veterans Day are much the same as those for Brantley.

"Veterans Day is a day so nobody forgets the sacrifices of those who deployed before us and those who will deploy after us," said Lawler, a Logansport, Ind., resident and a Task Force 38 administration sergeant. He said it's inspiring to be deployed for the first time on such a militarily momentous holiday. "It's exciting just knowing you're part of a long history of servicemembers being overseas," said Lawler, who's served in the Indiana Guard for nine years.

Like Brantley, Lawler took inspiration from his father, a 20-year Indiana Guard veteran, and one of his neighbors, who was a World War II veteran. "You always want to remember their stories," said Lawler. "That's one of the most important things is just being remembered."

Lawler also recalled the veterans who attended his unit's departure ceremony. "I think it was important that they were there because they knew what we were getting ready to go through. They lived it," he said. "We kinda had their blessing like they were saying 'we've done our job, now it's time for them to do theirs.'" On November 11, Veterans Day, part of Task Force 38's job will be to honor all who served.

Facts about Veterans Day:

- On November 11, 1919 President Woodrow Wilson proclaims the first Armistice Day in the United States. The year prior an armistice was signed between the allies and Germany on the eleventh hour for a cease fire that led to the end World War I.

- In 1938 Congress passed legislation making Armistice Day a federal holiday.

- President Dwight Eisenhower in 1954 signed legislation changing the name from Armistice Day to Veterans Day. World War II and the Korean War added many veterans to the U.S. population.