A paltry turnout for heroes who fought on real battlefields

BY EILEEN BRADY
THE NEWS JOURNAL OF WILMINGTON, OHIO ​

The weather was unseasonably warm on that Friday night.
The weather was miserably cold and rainy the very next morning.
There were 5,100 people attending that Friday night football game between Clinton-Massie and Blanchester, people supporting high school warriors fighting to advance in the playoffs.
There were about 25 people — not including the volunteers or the speakers — attending that Saturday morning Veterans Day service at  J.W. Denver Williams Park, in honor of real warriors who have fought (and are still fighting) real battles around the globe.
Yet I’m pretty sure the weather had nothing to do with the disparity in attendance figures.

​I only wish it had been different. Not reversed, because high school kids deserve support, too. Just different.
I wish the same Clinton County fans who traveled to Kings Stadium to hear high school football fight songs on Friday would have gotten up on Saturday to hear Taps played for U.S. veterans.
I wish the fans who high-fived each other after the greatest play ever Friday night would have gotten up on Saturday to shake hands with the World War II veterans, the ones from the Greatest Generation.
I wish some of the owners of the yellow “Support Our Troops” magnets on their minivans parked at the Friday night football game had made their way to actually support troops on Saturday morning. 
I wish the fans and the football players could’ve felt the heart-stopping symbolism of the 21-gun salute.
Instead, at the base of a tattered flag flying in the city park, which just so happens to be named after a native son lost to World War II, a crowd of 25 stood solemnly in the rain, as they probably do every year.
At least the ex-warriors were treated to a delicious meal on Veterans Day, courtesy of Billy and Jenny Kong, owner-operators of the No. 1 China Buffet. The restaurant is filled each year with veterans proudly wearing ball caps embroidered with their Navy ship’s name or T-shirts emblazoned with their branch of service. 
They come in groups of fellow veterans, or they bring their families. They enjoy an edible “Thank you for serving” from the restaurant that is the only business in Wilmington that currently advertises an everyday military discount.
In the past three years, Clinton County has already lost two of its own, Army Sgt. Steven Conover and Marine Lance Cpl. Brett Wightman, both of whom were killed in Iraq. Still others from our area are currently serving our country in far-flung places.
So Veterans Day should not be a vague concept to us, considering our losses and the new losses each day among American families.
The U.S. military is actively fighting in two wars, both of which began after the 9/11 mantra “We will never forget” was plastered on bumper stickers across the United States.
Only 25 people got up on a Saturday morning to honor local military veterans.
We’ll just blame the weather.