American Legion Post 20 gathered together for the first time in almost three years indoors on Friday, November 11th to honor local veterans.
Veterans and dignitaries gathered in Old Town in Kenai at the eleventh hour on the the eleventh day. Veterans Day is a chance to honor the men and women who served and sacrificed for the U.S. armed forces. The Kenai Peninsula is the home of one of the highest populations of veterans in the state.
David Segura, commander of the American Legion Post 20 spoke on the importance of listening to our veterans;
“I think one of the biggest things is if you know someone who is a veteran, be able to sit down, talk to them, be a friend and listen to what they are saying. They may have issues that there not willing to talk about it to anyone else other than a friend. And with that said, we need to be able to refer people, get there trust.”
Segura also explained the veterans crisis hotline;
“There’s also a crisis line and everybody is familiar with 9-1-1 if you have an emergency. Well this crisis line is 9-8-8, extension one and that’s for if you think someone’s going to commit suicide. Especially when we talk about to veterans, because there’s so many issues that there dealing with from getting out of the military, it’s a whole different lifestyle. And so, if you able to sit down, you think that there going to commit suicide, it’s a helpline. You can call the 9-8-8, extension one and it may prevent having to call 9-1-1 later on.”
Segura encourages all to be friend to our veterans;
” I think the biggest thing we can do is be a friend. Listen, be that support structure for the person that you’re dealing with. We also have a program that’s called buddy check. So, if you know that is going through health issues are they me be having some mental health problems when they get out. Call them, if you don’t here from them in a few days, call them and say hey how are you doing, you know be that friend, you know gain that trust from them.”
Kenai City Mayor Brian Gabriel encouraged hiring our local veterans;
“I would like to mention that too that, one of the things that during Dave’s keynote address that stuck out to me, for folks that if they are in a position and they can hire veterans to do that, empower them through that way too, so I think that was very important and honestly something that we should keep again thoughts 365 days a year, not just one. Because everything we have that’s endured for 250 years, almost 250 years the freedoms that we have are because of these folks.”
The American Legion was chartered and incorporated by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans organization devoted to mutual helpfulness. It is the nation’s largest veterans service organization committed, to mentoring and sponsorship of youth programs in our communities, advocating patriotism and honor, promoting a strong national security, and continued devotion to our fellow service members and veterans.