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Tribute considers heroes
By ROBERT KING, Times Staff Writer
SPRING HILL -- In a ceremony heavy on symbolism, veterans from around Hernando County gathered Monday at Veterans Memorial Park to remember their fallen friends and to consider what it means to be a "hero" in an age of terrorism. From a shady knoll near the park's circle of flags, a procession of old warriors carrying more than a dozen American flags and an equal number of other military banners marched in a short column. Ernest Stetz, with the Polish Legion of American Veterans, looked at the column and the other veterans in the Veterans Day crowd of roughly 200 people and said, "I stand in awe as I stand in the presence of so many heroes." Together, the assembly sang The Star-Spangled Banner and God Bless America. They recited the Pledge of Allegiance and heard a 21-gun salute. They listened as a trumpeter performed the somber notes of taps and a bagpipe player the chorus of Amazing Grace. Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. M.T. Smith, who served 37 years in the military, said Americans are too quick to put the hero label on people. Smith said people aren't heroes just because they fight in a war. And, in what he acknowledged was a comment that might seem out of place these days, he said people aren't heroes merely because one "was in the wrong place at the wrong time selling stocks" in the World Trade Center. Instead, he said that heroes are people who know they are headed into danger and make the choice to go anyway, whether Marines at Omaha Beach or firefighters in a New York skyscraper. "Let's don't let the politically correct people ruin a good American word called hero," he said. The remarks were warmly received by the crowd. The 2000 U.S. Census found about 24,500 veterans living in Hernando County, roughly one out of every five residents. One of them is Steve Carbonari, a World War II submariner who knows what it's like to feel a ship rattled by enemy explosives. He attended Monday's ceremony and said it struck just the right tone. As one who came through the war uninjured, Carbonari said he thinks about Veterans Day in terms of those not so fortunate. "To me, I respect the ones that would not be here today, or who left an arm or a leg behind," he said. "I am one of the lucky ones." For Richard Basso, a Marine in Vietnam, Veterans Day means remembering the men who spent time as prisoners of war, those who shed blood and the veterans now being made in the war on terrorism. "It means paying tribute to the past veterans that made the country what it is today, and the new (veterans)," Basso said. For Muriel Strafer, Veterans Day is a day to rejoice about the men in her life who went off to war and came home safely. Her father, Joseph Brown, survived World War I. Her husband, Frank, came through World War II. And her son, Kenneth, lived through Vietnam. "I just thank God because a lot of other kids I knew growing up did not come back" from World War II, Strafer said. Hernando County Sheriff Richard Nugent urged the veterans to tell the county's youth about their legacy. "It is so important that you, our vets, interact with our kids, because they are our future," Nugent said. State Rep. David Russell said Veterans Day takes on greater importance these days because of the ongoing fight against terrorism. "America's veterans are the world's veterans," Russell said, "because they have fought for freedom around the globe." -- Robert King covers Spring Hill and can be reached at 848-1432. Send e-mail to rking@sptimes.com .
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