Foundation will raise awareness of service
Memorial Day is about love and remembering, Circuit Judge Ben Bowden said Monday.
Bowden, who is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, was the guest speaker for Andalusia’s annual Memorial Day service. He also announced the formation of a new foundation dedicated to recognizing the contributions of area veterans, and raising awareness of the price of freedom.
Bowden recalled attending services for fallen comrades while deployed to Iraq in 2008.
“I was a lawyer and an officer, so I was pretty much kept out of harm’s way,” he said.
“I did make it a point while I was deployed to Iraq to attend any memorial service that I could get to,” he said. “It seemed particularly appropriate to gather together to honor fallen comrades in those circumstances. While all of those services are etched in my memory, one in particular stands out.
“It was an Army aviation ceremony to honor the crew of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter from the Texas National Guard that crashed in country on its way to join our unit. The Army has a tradition of doing a roll call and then maintaining a moment of silence after each fallen hero’s name is called. To hear those names called and to wait for them to answer, when you know they won’t, was, to say the least, emotional.”
“Those we gather to honor today, those men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice, gave their lives out of love,” Bowden said. “Love of country, love of freedom, love of their fellow soldier. There is no other way you can describe these sacrifices than to cast it in its rightful terms – “greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Bowden said Memorial Day is also about remembering
“It is about imprinting on our collective conscious in each generation the sacrifices of those who died in the service of their country. I don’t know of anyone who works harder at helping us remember than my friend, John Vick.”
It was Vick’s efforts to take a group of World War II veterans to a service at Eglin Air Force Base several years ago that led to a broader discussion.
Bowden said there is a sense of urgency that fewer and fewer people can remember when the United States was attached and its young men and women were called to defend their nation. Thus, he said, was born the Covington Veterans Foundation.
The group’s first act is the donation of a watercolor titled “A Hero Comes Home,” to the City of Andalusia. Vick conceived and commissioned the painting, which was done by Roger Powell. It depicts the flag-draped casket of a fallen soldier returning home in a railroad car, and is symbolic of the soldiers, sailors and Marines who paid the ultimate price for freedom.
“The future freedom of our nation may depend upon another group of young men and women who will be asked to make that same sacrifice,” Bowden said. “Our city, our state and our nation must do its part to make sure its young people understand that ‘freedom isn’t free.’ The United States of America, with all its faults and failures, is till the ‘bastion of freedom’ to the world. With God’s grace and the thankfulness of a grateful nation, may we ever by worthy of that honor.”
The foundation also donated a framed tribute composed by Vick, “Lost Voices” which is to hang near the painting.
Editor’s note: This tribute was written by John Vick. It is framed and was presented by the new Covington Veterans Foundation to hang near the painting shown here, in Andalusia City Hall.
Were they aunts, uncles, cousins, or just people you knew that day they fell – Who were they thinking of? Was it mothers? Fathers? Comrades? Sweethearts? Or whom?
They answered the alarm and said, “Send us. Our country calls.”
Without a thought, they pledged their hearts and minds, even their very souls.
Do we still care? These young people from Anywhere, USA – are they to be forgotten? While we build families and dreams – they lie on lonely hills, with no one to mourn them.
We can do better than this. Each one of us knows someone who served.
Those who returned were the lucky ones – intact, in both body and mind. But many of those young teenagers will never live out their dreams. How many doctors, inventors, teachers or other great lives were lost when they fell?
Maybe the world was saved from Fascism, Nazism or Communism – but is the world grateful? So many alive today owe their lives and freedom to those who gave that last full measure.
Let us pledge that those heroes who died on distant battlefields will never be forgotten. Those young men and women deserve our everlasting gratitude.
One day in the future, our nation will call again. Who will answer? America needs heroes. Only those who have been told about our country’s past heroes will step forward.
As the sound of “Taps” fades away, so do the memories of those brave men and women. Who will speak for them?
The gratitude of a nation can be their voice, lest they be forgotten. Remember them – be the voice for those who cannot speak.
Dedicated to all those who served in the Armed Forces of our country, but especially to those who served and never returned.
John Vick
May 27, 2019
Members of the Old Three Notch Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution recently presented flag banners to the City of Andalusia to be displayed on the city’s decorative light poles in the downtown area. The banners, which were hung this week for Memorial Day, were purchased with fundraising proceeds from the organization’s patriotic fire hydrant proceeds. Shown from left are Brenda Gouge, Shirley House, Mayor Earl Johnson, Sue Bass Wilson and Brandi Evans.
The DAR also gifted banners to the City of Florala.
The newly-formed Covington Veterans Foundation this week presented ‘A soldier comes home,’ a commissioned painting by Roger Powell, to Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson for City Hall.
Shown from left are Ben Bowden, president of the foundation; Johnson; Powell; and John Vick, foundation chairman.
Bowden said the foundation will identify and document the sacrifices and service of veterans from Covington County, and to raise awareness of those contributions. The group will also initiate projects in local schools, he said.
The painting, which is based on Vick’s childhood memory of seeing the bodies of fallen World War II soldiers returning home on a train, will be on display at the Memorial Day program planned for 10 a.m. on Monday, May 27, in Andalusia City Hall auditorium.
Members of the Andalusia City Council got a sneak peak at the newly-renovated Andalusia High School auditorium Tuesday, after hearing an update on construction progress from Superintendent Ted Watson.
“They’re still working on a punch list,” Watson said. “And there will still be some things to be finished, but I think the overall effect will be well-received Friday.”
State building inspectors gave the final go-ahead for use of the building last week, meaning the high school can hold commencement exercises there Friday. It will be the first event there since the renovation of the auditorium and gym – a project that will total approximately $12 million – began last spring. In May of 2018, commencement was held in the Kiwanis Community Center.
Council members toured the new auditorium after Tuesday’s council meeting. During that meeting, the council:
- Agreed to purchase shade structures, benches and fans for Cooper Pool. The total cost is $36,000. The shade structures will not be installed before the pool opens on June 3.
- Agreed to contribute $500 for the American Legion for a June celebration of the national organization’s centennial.
- Abated nine properties for weed and grass violations.