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Veterans groups trying to hold onto members

FARGO (AP) - Veterans groups in North Dakota are coping with dwindling numbers.

Steve Hoikkala, an Army National Guard staff sergeant, is the quartermaster for the Fargo Veterans of Foreign Wars post. He's also coordinator for eastern North Dakota military funeral honor guards.

He buries 120 veterans a month, mostly those who served in World War II and the Korean War. He says the group's numbers are ''slowly getting lower,'' and he's trying to recruit more.

North Dakota had more than 23,000 American Legion members in 1999. Jim Deremo, the state department service officer, says the number was down to 18,575 by the end of last year.

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Veteran Franklin Rust of Minot said Veterans Day is special for him.

"It's one day out of the year that all veterans can get together. It's kind of like family," he said, while waiting for the Minot Veterans Day program to begin Wednesday.

But he also noted, "Our World War II veterans are getting fewer."

Rust and his wife, Darlene, joined other veterans, their families and friends and others for the annual program in the Minot Municipal Auditorium in the old armory.

Rust served in the Army for 20 years from 1953 to 1973. He said that he and his wife really enjoy going to the Veterans Day program.

Veteran Bill Larson and his wife, Corrine, regularly attend the annual Veterans Day program in Minot. Both said their fathers served in World War I. Bill Larson was in the Navy Seabees during World War II, serving from 1944 to June 1946 in the Pacific Theater from boot camp to Hawaii and then Iwo Jima, he said.

Attending the Veterans Day program is an important part of his life, Larson said.

People filled the seats in the auditorium room, with some standing for the program.

Guest speaker Chief Master Sgt. Gregory Fleming, who is the command chief master sergeant for the 91st Missile Wing at Air Force Base, focused on ordinary men and women.

He said some who have served or are serving in the U.S. military have endured great hardships. They've been separated from family and had their lifestyles drastically altered. He said military life can be tough. He said some have experienced the horrors of war and some of them may be in the audience.

"All have sacrificed

something so that we could enjoy the freedoms we have," Fleming said.

Fleming said that often the service of veterans does not end when they take off the uniform. He gave examples of several who have served this country, among them Marine Sgt. Clay South, who by all accounts was an ordinary young man.

He said South was seriously injured during the second battle of Fallujah in Iraq. The Marine had to go through painful therapy and numerous reconstructive surgeries. Now South has made helping wounded veterans his life mission. He is the founder and president of an organization called Veterans of Valor, Fleming said.

Fleming said when Ronald Reagan introduced a young man, John McCain, at a speaking engagement in 1974, he said, 'Where would we find such a man?" McCain had been a prisoner of war in Vietnam; Reagan later become president.

"Reagan answered, 'We find them in our streets, in our offices, shops... on the farms. In other words, President Reagan was referring to ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things,'" Fleming said.

"It is America, not America's military that al-Qaeda and terrorists have declared war on," Fleming said. But it is the armed forces, he said, who "carry the big burdens and responsibilities" of defending us.

"Fortunately our military is made up of ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things," Fleming said.

"Not many people know this fact, but fewer than 10 percent of Americans can claim that they are military veterans. And what a list of accomplishments you 10 percent have accomplished," he said, listing some of the various wartime accomplishments from many years ago to today's war on terrorists.

America owes a debt of gratitude to its veterans, Fleming said. He said part of that debt is owed to the military families who have sacrificed for their country.

"Today is important because we choose to honor living veterans from the greatest generation to the latest generation. But we must honor them with deeds and not just words," Fleming said.

This year's program was arranged by American Legion Post #26 of Minot, with Jim Clifford, program chairman. The program included patriotic music by the Minot High School-Magic City Campus Band and Western Plains Youth Ensemble. Others taking part in the program included Louis McLeod, chaplain of Post 26 and Arnie Havelka, commander of Post 26.

Two MHS Magic-City Campus band members, Courtney Johnson and Matt Schimke, performed "Taps" with echo before the colors were retired, closing the 2009 program.