The many men who gave their lives for the freedoms we as a society enjoy were honored Monday during the American Legion Post 82’s annual Memorial Day service.
The service was held at 11 a.m. at the Choctaw County Community Center. The speaker of the event was Lieutenant Col. Dennis Bittle. Bittle is the commander of the Second Battalion, 114th Field Artilery Regiment of Starkville. He’s served 22 years in the Mississippi Army National Guard in many capacities and deployed to Iraq with 155th ABCT in 2005 as a platoon Fire Direction Officer and in 2009 as a Battery Commander.
“Col. Bowman can make anything sound good” Bittle said. He said before the men and women who served our country and gave their lives for our country enlisted they were normal Mississippians who took the oath to defend the United States of America.
Bittle said a lot isn’t known and veterans, war heroes, those who serve in any branch of the military don’t always get the recognition they deserve because they don’t tell their stories.
Bittle said because of the advancements of technology he feels there’s a disconnect between “the uniform and the society we serve.” He said it’s because of this disconnect that all branches are feeling the shortage of those enlisting. “Technology as direct access to our young people,” Bittle said. He said because of the volume of content that is always accessible, that’s causing an increased divide.
He said if they did a better job at telling their own stories, he believes it will do for others what it did for him – instilled a love and patriotism for the country.
“I felt called, like it was about more than myself,” he said.
Bittle said for him it was members of his own family and a man named Charles Tate who told him stories about the two tours he did in Vietnam.
He said when he goes to his office in Tupelo, he sees a wall of true heroes who gave their lives and their names are listed on that wall.
Bittle encouraged those in attendance to sit with a veteran, hear their stories or go to a museum and hear the stories not told on television, social media or in the news, to hear about the cost of freedom and to make those connections.
After the service, the American Legion then held a flag ceremony in the first phase of a memorial park their building on the west corner of the Courthouse in the old Cochran Hotel.
Men who have served in each branch rose their flag when the branch was called. There will be a more formal service for the memorial park when the park is complete.
