The commander of the Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca made his comments at then end of the annual Sierra Vista Veterans Day Parade as soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, as well veterans of those services and the Navy and Coast Guard, gathered at the aptly named Veterans’ Memorial Park.
“Sometimes, we see a Veteran of Foreign Wars or American Legion garrison cap, notice a prisoner-of-war pin on a gentleman’s lapel, or spot a veteran’s license plate, but we fail to express our gratitude and simply walk on by,” Custer said.
  
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If there is any day to take time to “remember and reflect upon, and truly appreciate the contributions of our American veterans,” it is the day set aside to recognize them, Custer said.
Although the city’s parade was on Saturday, Nov. 10, it is the 11th day of November that is the official Veterans Day.
To those standing in front of him representing the Army, Air Force and Marines who serve on the post, the major general told them that they, too, owe a debt to the past veterans, whose ranks they will be part of.
“For those of us in uniform today, veterans of America’s past wars represent all we hope to achieve though service to our nation,” Custer said.
Veterans represent courage in the face of danger, loyalty, and commitment to the nation and all of those are wrapped up when a person departs after serving honorably, he said.
“Veterans are the ones who came before us; they blazed a trail, enabling America’s contemporary military to conduct operations with greater speed, complexity, precision and success than at any other time in history across a global battlefield,” Custer said.
As he spoke, many veterans in the audience shook their heads in agreement.
In the audience were veterans from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the first Gulf War and a number of other shorter armed conflicts in the last half of the 20th century.
Some of them were still able to wear their old uniforms, although a few were a bit snug and others slightly faded from age.
Retired Master Sgt. Al Simpson was one of those able to wear his Army dress blues as if he was still in service. The 75-year-old was the parade’s grand marshal.
Simpson’s family, including current Army Master Sgt. Mark Simpson, the retired soldier’s son, who with his family came to Sierra Vista from Fort Bliss, Texas, attended the event.
Another son, William, and daughters Annette and Gloria and their families, all from Sierra Vista, also were in attendance.
Of his father, Mark Simpson said his dad’s selection as grand marshal “is a well-deserved honor.”
And even after his father retired with 27 years in the Army, which included more than two years as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, “he continues to serve,” the soldier son said.
It is the Simpson-type veteran of whom Custer spoke.
“Those of us serving today, owe a great debt to the generations of warriors who preceded us,” the general said.
With a crowd estimated as a couple of thousand lining Fry Boulevard, Simpson and a number of other veterans were driven by, receiving warm applause and cheers.
Active-duty GIs, the 36th U.S. Army Band from the fort and other school musical groups, Boy Scout, Cub Scout, Girl Scout and Brownie troops and packs were part of the parade. Almost the last group in the parade was the fort’s B Troop, 4th U.S. Cavalry (Memorial), which was recognizing the post’s history that goes back to the 1880s.
Custer reminded the audience at the park that the need for a military, which leads to veterans, continues.
“Today, we remain a military at war against an enemy as dangerous as they are determined — an enemy bent on destroying our way of life,” he said.
But the nation has faced such evils in the past “and every single time its citizens realized the threat they marched to the sound of the guns and confronted the danger head on,” he said.
It was the veterans of the past that defeated “imperialism, despotism and totalitarianism,” Custer said, noting today’s threat of terrorism will be defeated as “this time will be no different.”
There is a longing for the safe return of loved ones deployed fighting terrorism, he said.
On Thursday, 311 soldiers of the post’s 86th Signal Battalion returned after serving 15 months in Iraq. The battalion’s headquarters, the 11th Signal Brigade currently has more than 100 soldiers in Iraq and hundreds more of the 40th Signal Battalion are expected to join the brigade headquarters before the end of the year.
Those who are serving today do it for a number of reasons.
“For some, the military is a profession, a way of life. Others serve to pay for college … still others choose the military life to follow in the footsteps of their family,” Custer said.
However, there is a shared reason among service members that only intensifies after they experience combat, he said.
“Understand this clearly, soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines willingly pursue these professions, knowingly place themselves in danger and continually answer the nation’s call so others need not do the same,” Custer said.
The bottom line is those who are now in military service “choose to serve,” he said.
And like those who served in the nation’s military in the past, those serving today are performing “a purely selfless and truly noble action,” Custer said. As they serve they, too, are earning “the venerable and honorable title of veteran.”
SENIOR REPORTER Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
