Local Veterans, Military Mom talk Service, Treatment of Vets and Veterans Day Plans

In honor of Veterans Day, we spoke with members of military families about their experience and what Veterans Day means to them.

‘Kind of a Family Thing’

David Olson said he already celebrated Veterans Day earlier this week with his daughter, when he helped her enlist in the Air National Guard.

A National Guardsman himself for 25 years, his wife also served in the guard for 20 years.

“She’s military and I’m military, and so it was kind of a family thing,” said Olson, of Woodbury.

Veterans Day has special significance for Olson because his grandfather served in France during World War I, he said, and Nov. 11 is the anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the war.

Olson was first drafted into the military during the Vietnam War era in 1972. After completing his service, he took a few years off, and then joined the reserves in 1978, he said. He has been in the reserves or the National Guard ever since.

He was deployed to Kuwait in 2005 and 2006, when he was in his 50s and he managed sites where Humvees were outfitted with steel plating to make them more resistant to roadside bombs.

“You couldn’t protect them all with that armor, but it helped quite a bit,” he said.

In addition to Kuwait, he’s been to Afghanistan, Germany and Korea with the military, he said. Being a veteran, and having traveled to other countries in turmoil has given him perspective, he said. The problems of people in the United States pale in comparison to what he’s seen in other countries, he said.

 “In America, you’ve always got hope. You can always do something. Virtually everybody can do something to improve themselves,” he said. “There are some countries in which there is no hope. They can work as hard as they want, but it is going to be hard their entire life, so I really appreciate that probably as much as anybody.”

‘Not Just a Day to Have Sales’

After speaking at Mass at last weekend about the church’s upcoming , Mary Lawless said an elderly veteran who had served in Korea came up to her.

“Nobody had ever thanked him or acknowledged him before,” she said. “They’re talking about putting the veteran back in Veterans Day. It isn’t just a day to have sales.”

Lawless has a son who is finishing a tour in Iraq with the Minnesota National Guard.

Lawless’ parents met in Korea while serving in the same M.A.S.H. unit, and her husband is a Vietnam-era veteran, but it wasn’t until she had a child go into the military that she became deeply involved in serving veterans and military families. Now she’s part of Oakdale’s effort to become a , the Minnesota National Guard Family Readiness groups, Guardian Angels Church’s military ministry and she’s helping organize a potluck for veterans or those who want to honor veterans at 6 p.m. Friday at the church. It’s the church’s first such event, she said, and organizers were drawn to the idea of a potluck because of the community aspect.

“There’s something about people getting together and sharing a meal,” she said. “It has conversation, and people interacting with each other and getting to know each other.”

Having the support of others means a lot to military families, she said.

“If people just say, ‘Hi, how’s your son doing? How are you doing with it? Know that we’re thinking of you,’ that has really meant a lot to me as a mother,” she said.

On a larger scale, Lawless said she’d like to see society doing more for veterans, who are struggling with high rates of suicide and unemployment.

“I think we should just be taking better care of our veterans,” she said.

‘Wearing the Uniform was a Privilege’

Tom Gemza is proud of the work he did during his 35-year career in the military, he said, but he’s also proud of his work now as a retiree who volunteers through the American Legion.

He especially enjoys teaching flag etiquette to school and scout groups, he said, and on Veterans Day he’ll be at the ceremony at the veterans memorial at Woodbury City Hall that his post—Woodbury American Legion Post 501—helped get constructed.

“Everybody that drives by the city offices can see those flags flying and people stopping there and honoring their families that served,” said Gemza, of Woodbury.

Gemza was already wearing a military uniform when he was a member of the Army R.O.T.C. and Civil Air Patrol as a Cretin High School student, he said. After school, he and a friend joined the U.S. Air Force, and then the Air National Guard after their active duty service.

"I always wanted to be in the Air Force," he said. "Serving in the military, wearing that uniform, was a privilege."

Gemza said the way veterans and members of the military are treated has changed for the better since he first joined in the late ‘50s. When he was overseas in Okinawa, Japan, during the Vietnam-era in 1961 and ’62, people in the United States weren’t even aware there were troops in Vietnam, he said.

“The civilian population has come aboard in honoring the veterans every day in every way possible,” he said. “It’s just amazing when I can think back to the days of the Vietnam War … and the difference between then and how they treat veterans now.”