2007 ANNUAL VETERANS' DAY OBSERVANCE

October 30, 2007

Dear Veteran Family:

Pulliam Funeral Home - Oblong and Oblong American Legion Post #219 will conduct their 9th Annual Veterans' Day Observance at 1:00 P.M. Sunday, November 11, 2007, at Pulliam Funeral Home in Oblong. The Oblong American Legion Post #219 will be posting the colors and having a short service.

Each year the funeral home and the American Legion Post honor those local Veterans who have died during the past year. This year, we will honor 148 Veterans, one of which was part of your family.

Each Veteran will have a cross with his or her name on it with an American flag next to the cross. On Sunday, November 11th, each cross will also have a balloon attached to it. During the service, these balloons will be released in honor of each Veteran. We would like to have a family member or members present for each Veteran. I know that will be difficult if not impossible for some family members and we hope that in those cases a friend could represent the family at the release. The service will start at 1:00 P.M. and last for about fifteen minutes.

The crosses will be erected on Friday, November 9th and will remain up until Monday, November 12th. At night, this area will be illuminated.

We will have pictures of the service on our web site www.oblongfuneralhome.com after November 11th.

As a reminder the Oblong Community Club will be holding a Veteran's Day Soup Supper for the public at the Oblong Municipal Building on Saturday, November 10 th from 4:00 - 7:00 P.M. with no charge to eat for Veteran's and their spouses.

Sincerely,
Tim Attaway
Pulliam Funeral Home – Oblong, IL

 

	TAPS Day is done, gone the sun From the lake, from the hill, From the sky. All is well, safely rest. God is nigh Thanks and praise for our days 'neath the sun, 'neath the stars, 'neath the sky. As we go, this we know. God is nigh

The Origins of Veterans Day   In 1921, an unknown World War I American soldier was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. This site, on a hillside overlooking the Potomac River and the city of Washington, D.C., became the focal point of reverence for America’s veterans. Similar ceremonies occurred earlier in England and France, where an unknown soldier was buried in each nation’s highest place of honor (in England, Westminster Abbey; in France, the Arc de Triomphe). These memorial gestures all took place on November 11, giving universal recognition to the celebrated ending of World War I fighting at 11 a.m., November 11, 1918 (the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month). The day became known as “Armistice Day.” Armistice Day officially received its name in America in 1926 through a Congressional resolution. It became a national holiday 12 years later by similar Congressional action. If the idealistic hope had been realized that World War I was “the War to end all wars,” November 11 might still be called Armistice Day. But only a few years after the holiday was proclaimed, war broke out in Europe. Sixteen and one-half million Americans took part. Four hundred seven thousand of them died in service, more than 292,000 in battle. Armistice Day Changed To Honor All Veterans The first celebration using the term Veterans Day occurred in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1947. Raymond Weeks, a World War II veteran, organized "National Veterans Day," which included a parade and other festivities, to honor all veterans. The event was held on November 11, then designated Armistice Day. Later, U.S. Representative Edward Rees of Kansas proposed a bill that would change Armistice Day to Veterans Day. In 1954, Congress passed the bill that President Eisenhower signed proclaiming November 11 as Veterans Day. Raymond Weeks received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Reagan in November 1982. Weeks' local parade and ceremonies are now an annual event celebrated nationwide. On Memorial Day 1958, two more unidentified American war dead were brought from overseas and interred in the plaza beside the unknown soldier of World War I. One was killed in World War II, the other in the Korean War. In 1984, an unknown serviceman from the Vietnam War was placed alongside the others. The remains from Vietnam were exhumed May 14, 1998, identified as Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie, and removed for burial. To honor these men, symbolic of all Americans who gave their lives in all wars, an Army honor guard, the 3rd U.S. Infantry (The Old Guard), keeps day and night vigil. A law passed in 1968 changed the national commemoration of Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October. It soon became apparent, however, that November 11 was a date of historic significance to many Americans. Therefore, in 1978 Congress returned the observance to its traditional date.

Pictures From The 2007 Service

Alphabetical List of 2007 Crosses

  2007 Veterans Honored

Ralph Aten

Raymond "Ray" Atkins

Lloyd G. "Bud" Attaway

Sanford Bailey

Kevin Beals

Clarence Becktell Jr.

Kenneth "Kenny" Bell

J. R. "Jake" Best

Larry A. Best

Leon S. Bilyew

Col. Thornton Bline

Herbert Bluebaum

Donald Jerome Boehl

Oscar James Boehl

Charles "Chuck" Bolton

Otto Jr. Boyd

Arthur "Jack" Bush

Kenneth Bush

Fred Calvert

Wayne Cannon

Kenneth “Leo” Catt

Richard Catt

Charles W. "Jim" Caywood

Tom Coats

Tom Cook

Michael E. Cox

Charles Craig

Mary Ellen Dalrymple

Miner Dalrymple

Wallace Dalrymple

Gerald "Doc" Dart

John W. Dart

David Deatherage

Harold Deatherage

Loren K. "Danny" Deaver

William Denind

Jerry Dick

Warren Dillman

John L. Duffy

Valbert Dungan

Harold Eubank

Nolan Eubank

Donald Evans

Albert Fisher

Donald Floyd

Edmund Fowler

George Fowler

Arthur Francis

Arthur E. "Sonny" Francis

John Howard Frazier

J.D. Frye

Emanuel "Jim" Gangloff

Joe Goss

Charles "Charlie" Graham

David Griffin

George Hargis

Max Hargis

Chester "Chet" Harris

Frank Harris

Emmet "Bud" Hawkins

John Hawley

Harold Heck

Ray Heck

Bernard Helm

Orlie O. Henry

Jerry T. Hightshoe

Floyd A. Hinterscher

Robert S. Holmes

Bernard “Peely” Hosington

Lawrence Houdasheldt

Robert Humphrey

Albert Jacobs

Herb Jennings

Jerry Jennings

Albert "Gene" Jones

Herbert C. Jones III

Larry Kibler

Keith Kidwell

Charles Lackey

Keith B. Lackey

Bob Lanter

Clarence Lawhead Sr.

Gene Laws

Larry Leckey

Delmar “Dick” Lewis

Harold Lewis

Leo Lindsey

Max E. Lindsey

C. Eugene Lockhart

Earl Lorance

Mack Mason

Russell Mc Coy

Lawrence Mc Daniel

John Middleton

Harold D. Mieure

Otis "Ote" Miller

Robert S. Miller

Bill Moore

Ralph Mouser Sr.

Bill Myers

William Arden “Bill” Meyers

Larry Myers Sr.

Charles Neeley

Arthur Nolan

Stanley "Sarge" Novakoski

Ralph Nye

Howard Perrine

Kenneth Ping

Ora Merle Price

Peter C. Price

Russell Pugh

Dwight Quillman

Clyde Randolph

Jonathan Reed

George Reid

Russell “Rus” Richards

Harold "Red" Ridlen

Keith "Tuffy" Riker

John C. Rogers

Myron Ruddell

Floyd Sanders

Virgil Servison

Homer "Bud" Settlemeyer

Earl Seward

Frank Seyferth

Harry Shafer

Doyle V. Sharrett

Chester "Chet" Shields

William "Bill" Shonk

Raulin Shryock

W. Keith Sloan

Herbert "Herb" Smith

Wardie Smith

David Smothers

Michael Snider

Lloyd Pete Spaugh

Lloyd Stagner

Daniel Thomas

George Thompson

John Thompson

Fred Tincher

William "Bill" Tipton

Donald Earl Tracy

Howard Tuel

Ralph L. "Sonny" Wartsbaugh

Lorie Watts

Pearl Watts

William G. Webber

Raymond J. "Ray" Welch

Larry Joe Willis

Grant Woods

Stanley "Buck" Yager

Roger W. Yockey

Virgil W. Yockey

Ivan L. York

J.R. Youngman

And All Veterans Before 1998