By Harold Brutlag
Monday’s Memorial Day program took place inside the Legion Post131 building rather then in the Community Park because of the rain which started about 7:30 a.m.
Guest speaker, Zach Johnson, told the guests about patriotism and the freedoms we enjoy today and how they should be appreciated. He suggested the audience make each day their best. A marine, he served two tours of duty, one in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan.
Legion Post 131 Commander Randy Mavencamp introduced the MLHS band, which played the National Anthem, and the Girls State and Boys State representative who each spoke briefly. Marine veteran Charles Stoppleman read a list of service men who died while in the service of their country.
The Legion Post and VFW Post presented a 21 gun salute and Taps was played as the program closed.
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I thought Max Gohman’s tribute to her father, Leo Zahler, a Second World War veteran, was so fitting because it was published in last week’s Messenger just a week before Memorial Day. She said her dad, who entered the service on April 7, 1944, was a anti-tank gunner aboard a tank, named Black Widow 1I, attached to the Ninth Armored Division. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, earning a Bronze Star; and a second Bronze Star during the Battle of Ramogon Bridge along the Rhine River. He was also awarded the European and the American Theatre Ribbons.
On May 8,1945 the Ninth Armored Division, along with the First Infantry Division, liberated two sub camps of the Flossenberg Concentration Camp. This was recorded in the U.S. Army’s Center of Military History and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1993.
Max said her father didn’t talk about his war experiences while they were growing up, but she learned last summer from her sister Pat, that their dad had witnessed the horror of the physical condition of the detainees of the camps.
Like many of the soldiers who fought in battles like Zahler did, they tend to keep the history of their experiences buttoned up, not telling families members or anyone else about incidents of the war and their participation. While the stories and incidents can be heart wrenching, it’s their choice to remain silent or make their experiences public.