Military veterans were remembered and honored in Manhattan in observance of Veterans Day on Friday.
The day began with a breakfast at American Legion Hall and was followed shortly after with the annual parade down Poyntz Avenue to City Park.
Veterans and supporters of veterans then met in Peace Memorial Auditorium for the commemorative program, which featured patriotic songs performed by second graders from Lee Elementary and was highlighted by keynote speaker Lt. Gen. Perry Wiggins, who is the latest executive director of the Governor’s Military Council.
The full audio of Wiggins’ speech — introduced by Master of Ceremonies Don Thomson — can be heard below:
Via Christi Hospital also honored veterans Friday.
Via Christi Hospital associates gathered in the morning to honor veterans during a special flag-raising performed by Kansas State University Air Force cadets.
Bob Copple, president of Via Christi Hospital in Manhattan, said in a press release that the hospital has veteran representation from all wars since World War II.
“We have volunteers who served in World War II and Korea, and associates who served in Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said.
Bill Johnson, a veteran and chaplain at the hospital, served as the guest speaker at the event.
“We see veterans as old and wise,” he said. “We see them as something like the founding fathers, grave and gray haired. But most of them are young men and women, sometimes barely out of high school when they joined their particular service.
“We, who enjoy all the freedoms these men and women have fought for, have a responsibility to remember the conditions that led to the wars in which our heroes served,” Johnson continued. “We remember today, the veterans of our wars. We owe them a debt we can never repay. All we can do is remember them and what they did and why they had to be brave for us.”
During the ceremony, LeAnn Howell of the Wichita chapter of the Quilts of Valor Foundation, presented Via Christi associate LaShannon Picotte with a handmade quilt.
Growing up on a Native American reservation in South Dakota, Picotte, who serves as an OB tech at Via Christi Hospital, didn’t see a lot of opportunity. In 1993, knowing that there was more to the world, she made the decision to join the Army.
Picotte’s first duty station was at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Throughout her 7-year career, she served as an operating room specialist and a combat medic, and was stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and Fort Riley. Her awards include the Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Expert Marksmanship Qualification Badge with Grenade Bar and Sharpshooter Marksmanship Qualification Badge with Rifle Bar.
“There is a lot of poverty in Native American reservations. The military offered me the opportunity to join and showed me there was a lot more in the world,” Picotte says. “I am proud for being Army trained; I’m known as a jack of all trades.
“I am also proud for being the first Native American woman in my immediate family to serve in the military, and for setting an example for younger Native American children to follow their dreams, even if they take them far away from home.”
Picotte settled in Kansas after finishing her military service at Fort Riley in 2000.
“I grew up in South Dakota – that’s probably why I love Kansas so much,” she says.
Picotte started working at Via Christi Hospital (then-Mercy Regional Health Center) as an operating room technician before becoming an OB technician. She continues to serve the military as a civilian employee at Fort Riley.
“I’ve always been very compassionate and I’ve always wanted to help people to get better,” Picotte explains.
“Being an OR tech allowed me to help doctors and nurses and make their jobs much easier. Now, as an OB tech at the Birth & Women’s Center, I help to bring babies into the world. It’s wonderful.”
When Picotte learned that she was selected to receive the Quilt of Valor during Via Christi Hospital’s annual Veteran’s Day ceremony, she felt humbled.
“I know there are a lot of veterans who work here. I even work with some of them,” she says. “What an honor to be recognized.”
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