Osborne: Perseverance has played important part in nation's history

Perseverance carried George Washington's troops through a tough winter at Valley Forge when they lost 2,000 of the 11,000 soldiers there because of a lack of food and clothing to stay warm.

“That was the low point of the war, but they saw it through,” said Tom Osborne, congressman from Nebraska's 3rd Congressional District and gubernatorial candidate, during his Veterans Day address Friday at Beatrice High School.

By sticking it out through the tough times, those soldiers won their independence he said.

That kind of patience played an important part in history, from the Civil War to World War II, and continues to be important for the battles being fought today, Osborne said.

He said in talking to one young man in Kuwait who had been in Iraq a year, the man told him “the important thing is that the American people have patience.”

There has been a lot of debate over the current conflict in Iraq, Osborne said, but right now the fact is that the U.S. is there, and it's important to see things through there.

He said conditions were improving, 3,500 schools have been renovated and attendance at schools was up 80 percent compared to before the war. In addition, the average income for Iraqis has doubled since the war began, he said.

At this point 210,000 Iraqis have been trained to defend their own country, more than two-thirds of the way to the goal of 270,000, Osborne said. He said that within the next six months that goal will be reached, and at that point the U.S. will be able to begin to pull troops out.

But as one member of the armed forces told him, pulling out to soon would mean three things, Osborne said: one, that 2,000 soldiers died in vain, second that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis will die as the country implodes, and third it will tell terrorists that if they can hang on long enough terrorism works.

As for Darren Howe, the Beatrice soldier who died from injuries he suffered when an improvised explosive device hit the Bradley Fighting Vehicle he was driving on Oct. 17 in Samarra, Iraq, Osborne said he has heard how Howe was the driver of the vehicle, and despite being injured by the IED that hit the vehicle, still helped to pull others out.

“This is somebody who did something truly extraordinary,” he said.

As for the veterans on hand for the program, Osborne said everyone there is there to remember them and those that have gone before them.

The following representatives of various veterans' organizations were introduced during the ceremony: Dave Warren, commander, the American Legion; Ernest Robinson Sr., commander, Disabled American Veterans; Joe Hawkins, commander, Veterans of Foreign Wars; Herman Hofeling, commander, AMVETS; Ralph Naslund, state chairman, Pearl Harbor Survivors; Darrel Maguire, Marine Corp League; Phil Dittbrenner, Gage County Veterans Service Officer; Matt Starkey, Nebraska Army National Guard Troop C 1-167 Cavalry; Marian Melcher, president, the American Legion Auxiliary; Irma Gerdes, senior vice president, Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary; Eleanor Scheetz, commander, Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary; Maxie Freed, past president, Daughters of Union Veterans.

The Beatrice Veterans Day program was sponsored by the local veterans organizations and the Gage County Veterans Service Office.

Members of the American Legion Bitting-Norman Post 27 posted and retired the colors, and provided the firing squad.

Sharyl Schaepe, public affairs officer for the Veterans Administration Midwest Health Care Network was master of ceremonies for the event. The Rev. Jimmy Shelbourn, First Presbyterian Church, gave the invocation and benediction.

Beatrice Mayor Dennis Schuster gave the greeting, and instead of making comments on Veterans Day, asked the audience to join him in a moment of silence in honor of Howe.

The BHS band, under the direction of Bruce Greenwell, played the “Star Spangled Banner” and a medley of songs saluting each branch of the military. BHS band members Laura Goracke and Maureen Letostak played taps and echo.