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Veteran's Day Program At our November 9th meeting, Rockford Rotary honored Veterans with an outstanding program. It started with the Rockford City Honor Guard posting the colors including the flags from the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force and the Marine Corps. Following the posting of the colors, our National Anthem was played, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Janine Idstein welcomed everyone to our "A Salute to Veterans" program. The invocation was given by Police Chaplain Pastor Dan Herman. The Veteran Welcome was given by Aaron Booker, Marine Corps Veteran and Winnebago County Board Member. The Keynote address "Veterans Helping Veterans" was given by Sean West, a veteran and the newly appointed Executive Director of the Veterans Drop-in Center. Three Rockford Rotarians, who were in attendance were presented a lapel pin by a member of the Honor Guard and a Certificate of Appreciation for their service by Janine Idstein. Each of the veterans were given a chance to talk about their experiences in the service. Bob Canfield talked about serving as a helicopter pilot in Viet Nam including flying Bob hope to one of his shows and on another mission, getting shot down. He obviously survived and made it home. Jim Coffey talked about being told by Rockford College to "join the Navy and grow up" after spending three years majoring in beer and bridge. So, he did and spent a year on an aircraft carrier and two years on an LST in Japan shuttling members of the various services from Japan to Viet Nam. All while spending most of his time in front of a typewriter. John Fridh graduated from the Army Finance School as #1 in a class of 320 and in typical Army fashion was assigned to a unit with no Finance Office and had to spend the rest of his time in Minnesota! Rockford Rotarian Veterans Roger Maggio, Tom Scoville, and Kent Mallquist were not in attendance and will be given their certificates and lapel pins at another time. Eight Veterans who were not members of Rockford Rotary, including two members of the Honor Guard, were also presented with Certificates of Appreciation and Lapel pins in recognition of their service. The "Armed Forces Salute" was played next, and the veterans stood while their anthem was played. Janine Idstein gave a final thank you to the veterans and President Pete Rundquist presented our speaker, Sean West with a Rotary coffee mug. A special thank you to Janine for putting this wonderful program together. Speaking on behalf of the veterans, we all appreciated it.
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