Elmore County holds monument unveiling ceremony on July 4th

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Edited: This article has been edited to reflect that there was no fly over and that Taps was not played by the Honor Guard.

On the Fourth of July local dignitaries gathered in front of the Elmore County Courthouse for the official unveiling of the Veteran’s Memorial Monument.

Speakers included Mountain Home native, Charles Abrahamson who emcee’d the event and is a former member of the Marine Corps, former State Commander of the American Legion and currently Idaho’s Department Adjutant of the American Legion; Col. Richard Goodman, Wing Commander of the 366th Fighter Wing from Mountain Home Air Force Base; Elmore County Commissioner Bud Corbus; Del Shaw - Korean and Vietnam War Veteran and Mountain Home Mayor Rich Sykes. Mayor Sykes discussed a proclamation that will soon be placed in front of President Trump to designate a state funeral for the last Medal of Honor recipient from World War II, here in Mountain Home, as a final salute to the 16 million men and women of the ‘Greatest Generation’ who served in our armed forces from 1941 to 1945.

“We have funded a monument to represent the freedom that we have today and memorialize the fact that we are a free country and we respect our veterans highly, with everything that they have done for us we are honored today to have those veterans here and have them speak in a country that is free because of them,” Elmore County Commissioner Bud Corbus said.

During the ceremony the Honor Guard was on hand to play during the raising of the flag.

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Taps was not played nor was there a flyover. To the Colors was played while the flag was raised. You seem to be reporting exactly what KTVB did and they were wrong. How do I know? I was there in person and know that Taps is normally played at funerals and To the Colors is played when the flag is raised. Come on man !!

-- Posted by B Mullen on Sun, Jul 12, 2020, at 2:26 PM

Response by Stephanie Root, Staff Writer, Mountain Home News:
Mr. Mullen,
I was made aware of the mistake in my reporting by Ms. Colton. As I explained to her when I asked for pictures and information I was unable to attend the much anticipated event, because I recently broke my leg and am unable to be out and about yet and had no one to cover it for me. I did grab the additional information trying to add as much coverage to a very deserving story as I could.Though I have grown up in this military town and have a retired Air Force grandfather I was not aware of the differences in songs even though I never normally miss any type of ceremony including both the Veterns Day and Memorial Day services at the cemetery. I do whole heartedly apologize for the mistake and plan to make a correction this week.
Ms. Root,

Hope your recovery goes well and thanks for making the correction. I can ask around for more pictures if you want.

-- Posted by B Mullen on Tue, Jul 14, 2020, at 2:55 PM

Response by Stephanie Root, Editor, Mountain Home News:
Thank you and I'm always happy to have additional photos sent to us from events.

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