Senior Connections Senior Connections Jan 2019 | Page 7

LEGION from Pg 3
Meyer was deployed to the Middle East several times
after 9/11, serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom III 2004
to 2005. He was then deployed again, “Essentially,
I was mobilized from pretty much 2005 to 2012 in
stateside capacity or overseas. Then we got deployed
for Operation New Dawn, which was the fi nal run in
Iraq.”
Service similarities
Remer and Meyer noted that despite the 20-year
gap between their enlistments, they had trained in
some of the same locations and there were marked
similarities in their combat tours, even though the
tours had been on opposite sides of the globe.
Meyer said, “Some of the similarities I think for
sure would be the heat and the inability to really
identify your enemy.”
“Who’s the good guy?” Remer added.
“Yeah,” Meyer responded. “You don’t know. We
were urban and desert warfare, but it was very much
‘jungle.’ You didn’t know. You’d get shot at and then
go to the village that you got shot at from, and they’d
all be sitting in their huts and acting . . .”
“Having tea,” Remer interjected.
“Acting like they had no idea what had happened,”
Meyer continued. “Or they’d blow up a road or a
convoy that you’re on. You’d go over to the village
that’s right next to it, and they’d have no clue what
happened.”
Remer was among the troops involved in the
Cambodian Incursion authorized by President Nixon
in 1970.
“That was probably one of the scariest [times],”
Remer stated, “because that was getting toward the
end, and it seemed like guys got knocked off near the
end of their tour. I was getting toward the end of my
tour, and I thought, ‘Oh, boy, this is a bad way to go.’
But we made it.”
Meyer added, addressing Remer, “You can probably
speak to this, too. This probably travels all wars. You
normally have an idea when you’re going to go and
when you’re going to come home. You have a pretty
good idea when you’re going to come home, but
when you get there [into combat], you’re nervous and
excited. You don’t really know what to expect. After
two or three months, all right, you kind of settle into
a numb state. You’ve seen a couple people die. You
know what war is all about at this point in time, and
you kind of become devoid of emotion. Then, as you
start creeping toward that end again, then it’s like you
come right back up.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Remer murmured, nodding.
Meyer continued, “At that point you’re afraid.
You’re scared for a whole different reason, because
you’re so close now. ‘I’m so close.’ People get on edge
and it’s like, all right, you clean your weapon extra
well. You make certain you pack that extra magazine
of ammunition. You rehearse that one more time.”
“That’s very true, that’s very true,” Remer said. “I
can remember three guys that I know at three different
times; they’re on the convoy. They gave us all hugs.
They were getting hauled away, and they never made
it to the airport. They got RPGed before they got
there and got killed.”
Waverly welcomes, honors all
Waverly Post Commander Ken Borrell noted
that the Legion provides a welcoming environment
in which members can share their experiences of
military service and combat.
“We try to do it every meeting. We’ll get someone
from our group to share their military history. That is
really benefi cial. It’s too bad more guys don’t come
to the meetings where they can hear this. We had one
of our members; he was still actually suffering from
post-traumatic stress, and Judd got him connected
with somebody who could help him a little bit. This
was like 50 years later; you just kind of keep it in. It’s
kind of a neat thing when we can get people to share
their story, and sometimes just talking about it helps.”
Remer added that he believes an important function
of the American Legion is its advocacy on behalf of
all veterans.
“Legions and VFWs have been fi ghting . . . to
reassure that we do have [adequate resources for
veterans]. They’re our lobbyists, I guess. A lot of
people go, ‘Why are you in the Legion?’ I totally feel
if somebody wasn’t there lobbying for it, it would get
shoved under the rug. . . . I think that’s one of the
main things the Legion and VFW are for.”
Holmes spoke about his concerns that membership
in the Legion should be open to more individuals
with military service.
He explained, “There are periods of eligibility,
mandated by Congress, embodied by law somewhere
by the way they [the Legion] were chartered. But, there
are periods in between the wars, where a veteran could
not be eligible. First of all, the noncombat injuries,
in other words, from training and things like that,
there’s not a lot of difference in there. There are a lot
of veterans during those inter-war periods, who were
involved in some pretty risky operations. They’re not
eligible, according to the national leadership of the
Legion, and it needs to be fi xed.”
National American Legion is currently considering
a resolution to change eligibility.
Borrell went on to say that Waverly Post 305 is
more welcoming in its policies.
“I think, our Legion, we will take these guys no
matter what period they served. We will take them
into our Legion. They just can’t hold an offi ce, but they
are certainly welcome at our organization. Whether it
was peacetime or not, these guys were putting their
necks out there.”
Meyer added, “Even further on that, regardless [of
their duties] . . . at one point in time, and this sounds
dramatic, but they wrote a check payable by their life,
and it should not matter whether or not they went,
they made the choice. Because there was not a combat
scenario where they were placed, it does not mean
they didn’t make that commitment.”
Honoring that commitment is at the core of Wavery
Post 305’s mission, ensuring that the dedication and
sacrifi ce of all who served is acknowledged and never
forgotten.
Senior Connections HJ.COM
Senior
Sergeant David Remer was awarded the Bronze Star
during his service in the Vietnam War.
Sergeant Major Judd Meyer at ceremonies where he
received the EIB (Expert Infantryman Badge), an Army
special skills badge, awarded for successfully complet-
ing grueling testing, including weapons profi ciency,
communication, navigation, etc., culminating in a 12-
mile ruck march with a 65-pound pack with full weapon
and full combat load.
Connections January 2019
7