photo credit: Marc Albert/KRCB
An original WWII-era Jeep

A few dozen Sonoma County veterans turned out at the Charles M Schulz Museum for an observance of Veterans Day. They got recognition at an award ceremony organized by Nation's Finest. That's a nationwide nonprofit based in Santa Rosa providing supportive services to veterans and their families for half a century. 

Out front of the museum, a World War II halftrack. Parked next to it, an olive-drab three-quarter-ton truck, which happened to rolled up on the sands of Normandy, France 79 years ago.

Beside it...a once-ubiquitous Willys-Overland Jeep. The older vehicles contrasted with one of the group's new mobile service vans, designed for delivering services to vets living in rural areas.

Along with marking Veteran's Day, if a day early, the event aimed to raise awareness of veterans’ issues. And link former soldiers and sailors directly to services and programs.

During a formal awards ceremony, North Bay Congressman Mike Thomson noted families are at the heart of a veteran's support network. And they in turn face trauma, despite being far from any front line.

"I'm a veteran, I served with the 173rd airborne brigade in Vietnam. I had an aide, whose son was deployed in the middle east and I asked her one day, how she was getting along, and she said, 'well, I cope with it,' she said, 'and the way I cope with it is, every day I call your mother.' I said, 'you call my mother?' she said 'yeah,' she said, 'your mother endured your being in combat in Vietnam and I called her and from that, those daily conversations, it gives me strength, so remember, it is a family affair."

In the army for five years, Lee Hoskins served as a company commander in Vietnam. His job was with the 228th collection, classification and salvage company, part of the 79th battalion, finding, securing and towing damaged and wrecked tracked vehicles from combat zones.

More than half a century later, he says, like other veterans, he avoids things stressful that could trigger a post-traumatic response. A collector of old military vehicles, he spends a good deal of time keeping them in running order. Asked if there were one thought he'd like to pass along,

"If you don't remember history, then you're bound to repeat it---the mistakes of not knowing history, so therefore, I think people really need to realize that like what's going on in Ukraine, what's going on in Israel, there's a high price for freedom."