Dateline: May 29, 2008

Donley County remembers its veterans

Residents of Donley County paid their respects to more than 700 veterans buried in Rowe and Citizens Cemeteries during Memorial Day ceremonies Monday morning.

Hedley’s Adamson-Lane Post of the American Legion held the first service in the Rowe Cemetery, where 212 fighting men are buried.

Dick Bode of Alanreed gave the keynote address and recounted his experience as a young boy in German-occupied Holland during World War II.

“We lost our freedom as the Germans took over all phases of our lives,” Bode recalled.

His father was the president of an insurance company and had been well to do before the occupation, but the Bode family was reduced to barely surviving and even reached the point where they ate tulip bulbs for sustenance.

And yet as hard as life was for the Bodes, it was harder for other people – particularly Jews and those who crossed the Nazis.

Bode’s family took in a Jewish couple and hid them for the duration of the war.

Bode even witnessed the execution of a group of people by German soldiers, who lined them up against a church wall and shot them.

But Bode then praised the Allied forces who liberated his homeland and brought renewed optimism and warmth to his country.

After the war, Bode’s family visited California for six months, returned to Holland, and then went through a two-year waiting period before moving to America. He later joined the United States Air Force to serve his adopted country.

“I am an American by choice!” Bode exclaimed. “This is my country, and I love this land!”

The Legion’s service was closed with the roll call of the veterans buried in Rowe Cemetery.

The Donley County Memorial Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars held a separate service at the War Memorial on the Courthouse Square.

Speaker and County Commissioner Donnie Hall recalled the history of Memorial Day and called on Americans to uphold their obligations to the nation’s veterans. He said he hoped those in attendance would leave with a renewed sense of patriotism.

Post Commander George Hall said more than 500 graves in Citizens Cemetery were marked with flags. Some of those flags need to be replaced, and anyone wishing to contribute is asked to call him.