Dearest Dad,

Each day is a day of decisions, decisions determine destiny, and destiny is determined how you utilize the choice which came because of chance, a chance at the tender age of 17 to join the Seabees to preserve all of the freedoms that we in the United States of America enjoy. For this, you and every Veteran deserve our heartfelt gratitude and deepest respect; and dad you certainly have mine!  

I cannot begin to imagine what you went through during that time in Tinian when you had snipers shooting at you in the open trying to extend the runway for the Enola gay that carried the Atomic Bomb. Unspeakable things you can never share. Your experience, your memories are with you forever, such is the legacy of war.  And yet that is another gift of freedom for those of us who were not there, in that sense we are free from the pain and sorrow.

It is this and so much more that that I am thankful for, the unending sacrifices you and all the Veterans made for the better good of our beautiful country!  I am thankful for every soldier who has served our great nation! I am thankful for our freedom we enjoy at such a precious cost!

Dad, each day brings opportunities and this my given opportunity, I salute you with every bit of honor and reverence your service deserves! The commitments, such as those you made, continue to keep us free and provide a model for many other nations to follow.  Your service counted, you are admired, well respected, and dearly, gratefully remembered, never to be forgotten!   

My debt of gratitude will never be complete! Thank you for your service to our country!

Freedom is not Free     God Bless America

I love you dad….

Your daughter Ruby…;-}       

Thank You,

I wish to thank the following patriots for their dedicated effort and work on the 2014 Armed Forces Day Art Show. Mr. Gauthier’s seventh period construction technology I students who built and painted the displays: Chloe Benton; Alfonso Castillo-Trujillo; Jon Cromer; Chantel Gorman; Taylor McFalls; Tiera McFalls; Abbagail McNamara; Sean McPeake; Jordin Medlock; Jesus Naranjo; Allen Pittman; Alyssa Richmond; Paul Rodriquez; Andre Settegren-Davis; Tyler Smith; and Sierra Walker. For the gracious young ladies at the Mineral County Library for patiently providing the new venue: Ms. Courtney Oberhansli; Ms. Kathy Pyatt; Ms. Margaret Simpson and Ms. Christina Boyles; the board of the Mineral County Council on the Arts: Ms. Mable Beer; Ms. Linda Young; Ms. Cindy Nixon and Ms. Patricia Riley. The dedicated volunteers: Mr. Don Banfield; Ms. Sharon Swindler; and Ms. Glenmar McConnell (also members of the Mineral County Council on the Arts). Mr. Robert Petrere; Mr. Gary Heater; Ms. Katie O’Reilly (that was good pizza) and Ms. Corrine Sterns. I also wish to thank the dedicated; creative artists/photographers who provided artwork. I hope you all have a wonderful, blessed summer and let’s get to work on the 2015 AFD show.

P.S. I’ll be getting a list of all our winners soon.

Gary Funk