Clearmont Historical Group Holds Veterans Day Program

On Monday Nov. 11, the Clearmont Historical Group held their annual Veterans Day Program. The program started at 1:15 at the Clear Creek Valley Veterans Memorial. Robert Prusak, Clearmont Historical Group President, gave the welcoming speech and gave thanks to those who have served. Will Betz and his ‘echo’ played ‘Taps’ on the trumpet.

After the brief ceremony there, the audience moved into the Clearmont Community Center. There were over 60 people attending the program, and the Community Center Multi-Purpose room was standing room only.

Pastor Lynn Qualm of the Clearmont Community Church gave the Invocation.

Pictures of those from the Clearmont area who have served in the military lined the walls, and a table at the back of the room held several display items.

The Arvada-Clearmont School music students played several patriotic selections, including the national anthem and a few bars of each of the service branches songs, such as the Marine’s Hymn.

K.O. Reisland, Airman First Class, U.S. Air Force, talked about his service. He enlisted right out of high school in 1974.

Cynthia Vannoy, historian, gave a talk about the Native American Code Talkers in WWI and WWII. The Navajo Code Talkers of WWII were the best known, but in WWI, members of the Choctaw, Comanache, Sioux and Osage tribes, contributed to the war effort against the Germans.

She ended her speech saying. “It is ironic that the Native American’s were asked to use their native speech to send secret messages in the war, when for years the boarding schools would punish students for speaking their traditional language.”

Chad Carvalho talked about his time in the U.S. Army. Carvalho is currently a commercial pilot.

He said he joined the service in 2004, and was deployed to Iraq in 2008-2009, and while there he met several great pilots and worked with them and when he returned, he started his own flight school journey.

He said that later he switched to medevac, and he talked about the different wars and the care of the wounded, and how the survival rate has improved over the years. During the Vietnam War, Major Kelly started the medevac program.

He said in the Afghan war, they added paramedics to the Medevac helicopters. He said that their average response time was 6 minutes, 7 minutes at night. If they got to the wounded soldier, the soldier had an excellent chance of living.

Robert Prusak read John Kiser’s story. Kiser’s 24-year Navy career started in 1982. He said that in 1984 they sailed with a battleship battle group and with the USS New Jersey BB-62 battleship.

In 1987 he was sent to the Persian gulf as a part of a team that helped to protect oil platforms and escorting all oil tankers from the gulf. He also served in the Naval Reserve.

Ira Roadifer of the Clearmont Historical Group gave the closing remarks and the CHG provided refreshments.