United Methodist Church honors veterans

Author: Kelly Janis

American flags wafted over the leaf-strewn altar of the Middlebury United Methodist Church on Nov. 11 as the congregation held a special Veterans Day service to honor local residents who have served in the military. The gathering - which featured patriotic hymns, the recitation of the names of Vermonters who have died in Iraq and the recognition of veterans who stood as their service song blared from the organ - was the first iteration of what Reverend Jill Robinson said she hopes will become an annual event.

"I thought it was really appropriate for this to be happening in a church setting, which is not something a lot of churches are doing anymore," Robinson said. "It's an opportunity to prayerfully honor those who have served, and to also give thanks for the freedom to worship in this way. So, it's quite central to what we do."

Don Jochum, who organized the event in Middlebury after staging a similar undertaking at another church two years ago, insisted that the event's motive was not political in nature.

"It's not about glorifying war, and it's not about protesting war," he said. "It's about honoring those who served."

For Jochum, the impulse to bestow this honor is rooted not only in his father's status as a veteran, but also in the fact that, presented on two occasions with the opportunity to enlist in the military, he ultimately chose not to.

"It's become very important to me, since I didn't serve, to make sure we recognize those who did," he said.

Attuned to the lack of similar events in the region, Robinson expressed her disappointment at the lack of attention Veterans Day routinely garners.

"I think it's something that's gone out of practice," she said.

Jochum agreed. "Veterans Day doesn't get as much publicity as it should," he said. "On Memorial Day, we have the day off, and there are parades. Veterans Day, on the other hand, has sort of fallen by the wayside."

The service sought to rectify that fall by placing a human face on the day. Chief in so doing was SFC Bill Edson, who spoke of the lasting resonance of his experiences in the Vermont Air National Guard.

"We as veterans all took a selfless step forward and declared our willingness to protect those who did not, those who could not and those who would not," Edson said. "We as veterans are the few, we are the brave and we are the willing that accepted the risk of certain self-sacrifice in order to maintain the freedom, the liberty and the ability to pursue happiness for our families' sake, our neighbors' sake and for the sake of even those who protested against us, and burned the very flag we carried as United States soldiers, sailors, airmen, Coast Guards and Marines."

Edson urged listeners to take seriously the magnitude of that risk as confronted by those currently serving in the military.

"We must remember that, just as we were, they are only an accident, a bullet or a bomb away from being celebrated on Veterans Day to, instead, being remembered on Memorial Day," he said.

Edson was not the only local resident with sobering words to offer on Sunday.

In 2003, Heidi Schuerger - a former United States Marine Corp gunnery sergeant who instructed young members of the church's Sunday school class in the presentation and retiring of the colors - was only a few months into a new job as a database administrator at the College when she was mobilized to serve in Iraq.

Upon returning from her seven months of active duty, Schuerger was relieved to be greeted by a relatively warm reception.

"I grew up in Vermont and observed some very bad treatment of veterans returning from the Vietnam War," she said. "That's not so much the case today, thankfully."

Still, Schuerger cautioned individuals against transferring their political frustrations to veterans.

"If you disagree with the war, you have to keep that separate from how you project those feelings toward an individual who served in that war," she said.

Schuerger felt that those who crowded into the pews of the congregation of which she is a part on Sunday were successful in abiding by that ideal.

"I know that some people here have different opinions than I do toward the war," she said. "But in general, I think there was a separateness of personal feelings and politics today. I think that's a real testament to everyone who participated in the service."