Veterans Day Guide 2022

*The appearance of photos of service members does not constitute endorsement by Fort Carson, Peterson/Shriever Space Force Base and the U.S. Army.

Colorado Springs Veterans Day Parade

The

Vermijo

PARKING

HANDICAPPED SPECTATOR PARKING:

On Bijou Street between Tejon Street & Nevada Avenue. Handicapped spectators can sit in their car and watch the parade, or watch from outside of their vehicle (their option). Handicapped persons may also gain access to the Viewing Stand area at Pikes Peak and Tejon where we can accommodate persons in a wheelchair or those able to navigate bleachers.

Use Cascade and Pikes Peak to gain access.

REGULAR PARKING:

• City parking garage at Nevada and Kiowa

• City parking garage at Nevada and Colorado

• City parking garage at Cascade and Bijou

• Unhooded downtown parking meters

IN-KIND SPONSORS

BRONZE

HISTORY OF THE PARADE

Twenty years ago a small group of patriotic volunteers formed a non-profit organization to host an annual Colorado Springs Veterans Day Parade. Their mission was simple:  To recognize local veterans by hosting a first-class parade in their honor. The parade has approximately 100 units that include military units from 4 bases, Veterans Organizations, JROTC Youth, military and high school bands, Boy and Girl Scout Groups, horse and motorcycle groups.

The parade is held the first Saturday in November and there is no fee for the parade participants. The parade is open to the public and we do not sell food or souvenirs. We want the focus of the day to be entirely on the veterans that have so honorably served our country.

There are 5 different types of sponsors that have helped us for 20 years. One type of sponsor is an In-Kind sponsor. There are several of these supporters that provide services to the parade that would otherwise require an increase in the funds needed to put on the parade. One in particular is the Military Newspaper Group that provides this program each year. Another is FLEXTEC Corporation that supplies stickers each year to be distributed throughout the Colorado Springs Elementary Schools. Teachers can use these stickers to talk about Veterans Day and about the large military population that includes family members of many of the children in the schools.

The parade could not begin on parade day without the 20 Volunteers that assist in the staging area making sure all the units are ready to proceed down the parade route. These are just three of the sponsors helping make the parade a special day for the military population in Colorado Springs.

Colorado Springs Veterans Day Parade Line-up

Grand Marshal

Colonel Lawrence L. Rusiewicz

Lawrence Rusiewicz is one of 179 solo pilots that flew in the Korean war. Read ‘what is a solo pilot below’. His biography is as follows:

Colonel Lawrence L. Rusiewicz was born in July 1931, in Natrona, Pennsylvania, to George and Julia (Olszewski) Rusiewicz. He was the oldest of two chil dren; Joanne Voytovich was born in 1936.

Colonel Rusiewicz graduated High School in 1948 and Valley Forge Military Academy prep school in 1949. In 1953, he graduated from Pennsylvania Military College and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in June of that year. He then graduated in 1954 from the Helicopter Officer’s Course and in 1960, gradu ated from Fixed Wing Aviation Course and completed Command and General Staff College in 1967.

The first assignment was the Army Medical School Career Course in Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas, where he met his future wife of 64 years, Lucy Willis. They have four daughters, Laura Wild, Lisa Rosintoski, Linda Fisher, and Lucie Del Re. As a family, he served 30 years in the Army, including two tours in Germany. The Helicopter Ambulance, APO 358, was in support of the 4007th Mobile Army

Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit at Uijongbu, South Korea, in 1955. In Vietnam, he was assigned to the 57th Medical Detachment Helicopter ambulance in support of the 1st Airborne Mobile Division.

Colonel Rusiewicz logged over 200 hours of combat support missions. He flew missions in Iran supporting the Iranian government’s earthquake relief efforts in 1962. His last assignment was in Fort Carson, Colorado and then retired in 1983.

Grand Marshal - Chief Master Sgt. Peter Van Tetley

In 1948 at the age of 16 Peter joined the Merchant Marine Service, as a seaman. Duties included transport of supplies to military locations, vessel maintenance, and food preparation for seamen on board the ship. Pete left this position to work in a manufacturing plant for two years until he could enlist in the Air Force.

In 1951 Pete joined the U.S. Air Force in Boston, Mas sachusets and was sent to Sampson AFB in New York for Basic Training and then on to F E Warren AFB in Cheyenne, Wyoming as a Communications Center Specialist. This was the beginning of a 28 year career in the U.S. Air Force supporting communications cen ters and military personnel throughout the U.S. and overseas. Some of the more interesting assignments follow.

Pete was briefly assigned to Korea but was eventually sent to Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage, Alaska to oper ate the Weather Relay Center where he became Staff Sgt. in 1953.

Another assignment was in 1960 where Pete was the NCOIC (non-commissioned officer in charge) of Tele phone Operations at the US Base in Evruex Fauville France. There were 7 US military and 13 French op erators at this operations center. While in France he performed Honor Guard Duties at Brittany Beach and Normandy over a four year period.

In 1964 he returned to the United States to serve in communication operations in Utah and California un til he transferred to Vietnam Tan Son Nuit AFB. At this Telephone Operations Center there were 7 Airmen and 12 Vietnamese operators. While in Vietnam Pete encountered multiple combat situations from the Viet Cong and was awarded the Bronze Star.

In 1967 he returned to Ent AF Base in Colorado Springs where he main tained all commercial and service radio systems at NORAD and the Air Force Academy.

Tech Sgt Tetley’s next assignment in 1969 was in Diyarbakir, Turkey. He was assigned to establish a Communication Center in Turkey for close com ms with NORAD and Radar sites. In addition, he taught conversation al English to 32 Turkish personnel and created a Station Newsletter of cur rent events and history in the area for U.S. staff to send home to family and friends. He was promoted to the Master Sgt rank while in Turkey.

In 1972 MSgt Tetley returned to the Colorado Springs and NORAD at the Mountain Site Communication Center and later that same year returned to Aerospace to complete documentation for the Turkish Radar site.

In 1973 Pete transferred to the ADC (Area Defense Counsel) located in the Inspector General Office at the Chidlaw Building. He served as the Communications Superintendent and traveled as an Inspector covering Communication Centers and other areas of base oper ations. He attained the rank of Chief Master Sgt. Chief MSgt Tetley retired in 1979 and was awarded the Mer

itorious Service Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster.

Peter Tetley married the love of his life, Mary Mattson, a school teacher from Missoula, Montana on September 1, 1955. She traveled to France with Pete and taught school on the Evruex Base for three years. They were married for 48 years.

After retiring Chief MSgt did not stop working. He found a variety of civilian positions and volunteered at the DAV as a van driver for the Denver VA Hospital and Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo. He is also a member of the following military organizations; American Legion Post 5, VFW, AFSA, TREA, and AFTEA. If this isn’t enough to fill his waking hours he is also active with his church’s Mission Programs.

The Pledge of Allegiance

From THE RED SKELTON HOUR, January 14, 1969

On January 14, 1969, I presented “The Little Old Man” as a teacher. The time was 1923. The students had finished reciting the Pledge of Allegiance which at the time was but 10 years old. The old sage called the children together and said,

“Boys and girls, I have been listening to you recite the Pledge of Allegiance all semester and it appears that it has become monotonous to you or could be you do not know the meaning of those words.

If I may, I would like to recite the Pledge and give to you a definition of the words.

I – meaning me, an individual, a committee of one. Pledge – dedicate all of my worldly goods to give without self-pity. Allegiance – my love and my devotion.

To the Flag – our standard, Old Glory, a symbol of freedom. Wherever she waves, there is respect because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts freedom is everybody’s job.

Of the United – that means that we have all come together. States – individual communities that have united into 48 great states 48 individual communities with pride and dignity and purpose, all divided with imaginary boundaries, yet united to a common cause, and that’s love of country.

Of America.

And to the Republic – a republic, a state in which sovereign power is invested in representatives chosen by the people to govern. And government is the people and it’s from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people.

For which it stands!

One nation – meaning, so blessed by God. Indivisible – incapable of being divided.

With Liberty – which is freedom and the right of power to live one’s life without threats or fear or any sort of retaliation.

And justice – The principle and quality of dealing fairly with others.

For all – which means, boys and girls, it’s as much your country as it is mine.”

Red Skelton

Copied from a framed picture in the Ladies Auxiliary Room, Retired and Enlisted Association, Colorado Springs, CO

ABOUT VETERANS DAY

Veterans Day is a U.S. legal holiday dedicated to American veterans of all wars, and Veterans Day 2022 occurs on Friday, Nov. 11. In 1918, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in World War I, then known as “the Great War.”

Commemorated in many countries as Armistice Day the following year, Nov. 11 became a federal holiday in the United States in 1938. In the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became known as Veterans Day.

ARMISTICE DAY

The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, marking the official end of World War I. Nonetheless, the armistice date of Nov. 11, 1918, remained in the public imagination as the date that marked the end of the conflict.

One year later, in November 1919, U.S. President Woodrow Wilsonproclaimed Nov. 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day. The day’s observation included parades and public gatherings, as well as a brief pause in business and school activities at 11 a.m.

On Nov. 11, 1921, an unidentified American soldier killed in the war was buried at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. On the same day the previous year, unidentified soldiers were laid to rest at Westminster Abbey in London and at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

FROM ARMISTICE DAY TO VETERANS DAY

American effort during World War II saw the greatest mobilization of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force in the nation’s history (more than 16 million people); some 5.7 million more served in the Korean War.

In 1954, after lobbying efforts by veterans’ service organizations, the 83rd U.S. Congress amended the 1938 act that had made Armistice Day a holiday, striking the word “Armistice” in favor of “Veterans.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the legislation on June 1, 1954. From then on, Nov. 11 became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.

The next development in the story of Veterans Day unfolded in 1968, when Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill, which sought to ensure three-day weekends for federal employees— and encourage tourism and travel— by celebrating four national holidays (Washington’s Birthday, Memorial

Day, Veterans Day and Columbus Day) on Mondays.

The observation of Veterans Day was set as the fourth Monday in October. The first Veterans Day under the new law was Monday, Oct. 25, 1971; confusion ensued, as many states disapproved of this change, and continued to observe the holiday on its original date.

In 1975, after it became evident that the actual date of Veterans Day carried historical and patriotic significance to many Americans, President Gerald Ford signed a new law returning the observation of Veterans Day to Nov. 11 beginning in 1978. If Nov. 11 falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the federal government observes the holiday on the previous Friday or following Monday, respectively.

REMEMBRANCE DAY

Great Britain, France, Australia and Canada also commemorate the veterans of World War I and II on or near Nov. 11: Canada has Remembrance Day, while Britain has Remembrance Sunday (the second Sunday of November). In Europe, Great Britain and the Commonwealth countries it is common to observe two minutes of silence at 11 a.m. every Nov. 11.

In the United States, an official wreath-laying ceremony is held each Veterans Day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, while parades and other celebrations are held in states around the country.

Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day—a common misunderstanding, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Memorial Day (the fourth Monday in May) honors American servicemembers who died in service to their country or as a result of injuries incurred during battle, while Veterans Day pays tribute to all American veterans—living or dead—but especially gives thanks to living veterans who served their country honorably during war or peacetime.