Close to 90 people, including many Lewis County veterans, their families and friends, attended the Veterans Day program on Monday, Nov. 11, at the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis.
The program included a speech by Operation Iraqi Freedom U.S. Army veteran David Konkler along with a Quilts of Valor ceremony where five veterans were honored with handmade quilts.
Those five veterans included:
- Tom Johnson, who served in the U.S. Army National Guard from 1975 to 1981 as both a cook and armored personnel carrier driver. He was stationed in the Pacific Northwest and California.
- Fred Breed, who served in the U.S. Navy from 1948 to 1951 as an electronic repair technician assisting Mexican military forces south of the border. He was stationed in both Puerto Rico and Mexico.
- Danny Draper, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1970 to 1978 in both the infantry and force reconnaissance. He served in the Vietnam War along with being stationed in the Philippines, Hawaii and Georgia.
- Oliver Brock, who served in the U.S. Army from 1984 to 1988 as a diesel mechanic and was stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He served an additional four years in the Army National Guard at JBLM.
- David Konkler, who served in the U.S. Army from 2005 to 2013 as a tank gunner and deployed twice as to Iraq, including an extended deployment where he spent 15 months in the country.
Quilts of Valor is a nationwide nonprofit started in 2003 by Catherine Roberts, the mother of an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran who wanted to help her son. It focuses on helping veterans find healing in part by gifting them handmade quilts…