GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The 77th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor brought together area veterans to show their solidarity.
“A Date Which Will Live in Infamy.” The words of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt still ring true today as veterans gathered at the Green Bay Veterans Manor on Pearl Harbor Day to honor the courageous men and women who have served this country and who continue to serve.
Army Veteran and resident Kathy Fawcett helped craft a quilt adorned with military patches. It took plenty of helping hands and plenty of time to complete the queen size quilt.
“Myself and other residents started working on the quilt on August 29, 2017,” she explains. “It took us a long time to finish it.”
Those involved with making the quilt say there was very special consideration put into the colors involved.
Brown was chosen to represent boots on the ground, orange is for agent orange, and white is for freedom.
For Fawcett, the quilt is designed to honor a number of different people.
“For the men and women that lost their lives, [the veterans] that are still here, the families of people that we lost, just everybody,” she says.
Following a grand reveal, the quilt is now being permanently affixed in Veterans Manor.
There was a luncheon ceremony held at the Manor where individuals from the Center for Veterans Issues spoke to the residents.
At the luncheon, a table was set for the “Missing Man,” which serves to represent Prisoners of War and Missing In Action U.S. Soldiers.
Katrina Nelson, the Area Manager for Supportive Services for Veterans Families, believes it’s important for the veterans to have one another as a support tool.
“Sometimes these connections with people who have experienced the same thing that they’ve experienced are very helpful and it can be uplifting,” she says.
Also, an experience such as this can be plenty beneficial to individuals that never served.
“When you have an event like this and the community is invited, I think that it gives a greater appreciation [to] who served and what they went through,” says Nelson. “It just creates for a sense of patriotism all around.”
