Community comes out on Saturday to salute its veterans
(Seguin) – The chilly temperatures over the weekend did not stop the Seguin and Guadalupe County residents from coming out and celebrating area veterans. Leading that celebration were members of the Disabled American Veterans and the Guadalupe County Veterans Council (GCVC) which hosted their annual parade and Veterans Day Program on Saturday at Veterans Park.
Serving as this year’s guest speaker was Lt. Gen U.S. Army Retired Stephen Speakes of San Antonio. Prior to taking the podium, Speakes shared a bit of that day’s message with Seguin Radio KWED and the Seguin Daily News.
Speakes says he wanted to take advantage of the good turnout that morning by sharing what has become one of the military’s greatest struggles – the struggle to find recruits desperately needed for the future.
“I’m going to talk about the challenge that we have trying to keep young men and women entering all of our services in adequate numbers to keep our military strong and that is I think something that all of us as Americans need to be worried about so that’s what I’m thinking about on this Veterans Day because my question is, we’ve got great veterans today. Where will be in 20150. Who will be our veterans in 2050 and I think we all as Americans ought to be thinking about that and worried about providing the right encouragement for young Americans to join,” said Speakes.
Speakes says every branch of the military is struggling to make its 2022 recruiting goals. He says 2022 has become the year that the country has begun questioning the sustainability of the all-volunteer force.
“The first thing we have to acknowledge is the services can’t meet their enlistment goals, their recruitment goals so for example, the Army finished this last fiscal year 15,000 soldiers short. Think about the Navy. The Navy is now going to enlist somebody as old as 41 years of age to join the Navy and the reason they are doing that is because they are trying to find men and women who want to join, and my concern is that we don’t offer enough to cause a young man or woman to make this a career choice. It’s too hard to be solider, a sail man, an airman and a Marine and there’s not enough in it to encourage a young American to join today,” said Speakes.
According to military officials, 2022 marks the start of what they believe will be a “long drought for military recruiting.”
They say the military has not had such a hard time signing recruits since 1973, the year the U.S. left Vietnam and the draft officially ended.
Speakes says he is hoping that Americans not only observe the sacrifices of their veterans during this time of observance but that they too also look for ways to encourage younger generations to serve their country.
As for his own message, Speakes says it’s simple.
“Oh, I’d tell them it’s the greatest thing in the world to do. It’s the proudest moment of my life to have served as a solider and I would encourage anybody to try it,” said Speakes.
This year’s Veterans Day observance was held on Saturday beginning with the annual parade from downtown Seguin to Veterans Park located at the corner of Erkel and Jefferson Streets. A list of both city and county, state and congressional dignitaries were on hand to welcome the crowd at the annual Veterans Day Program. The list included U.S Congressman Vicente Gonzalez; State Representative John Kuempel; Seguin Mayor Donna Dodgen, Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher; Guadalupe County Sheriff Arnold Zwicke; Seguin Police Chief Jason Brady and Seguin Fire Chief Dale Skinner.
Seguin’s HEB this year was also part of the festivities providing loads of snacks and drinks to all those in attendance. This was the first year that the Veterans group opted to move the local program to a day other than the actual federal holiday which is observed annually on Nov. 11.
