As the heavens waffled between a skin wrinkling, omnipresent misting and an insistent but not quite troubling middling kind of gray rain, nearly a thousand people gathered on the skirting of the recently completed monolithic structures containing the names of the heroes of Sac County, Iowa. It is debatable if the lawn of the county courthouse had ever entertained the crowd this large for any purpose.
It was May 29, 2011. On this day after many years of endeavor the Sac County Veterans Memorial, a project beleaguered with setbacks in its construction and negativity from its critics had at last become a reality.
The dedication was set to begin at 2:00 PM and the Internet was awash in rumors that it may be moved to the fairgrounds or canceled altogether. It was a fact that the WWII era bomber due to fly over was not on display at the Sac City Municipal Airport. Those spreading the rumors could easily have taken a 3 minute drive to downtown Sac City, Iowa and understood the error of their ways. The entire block of U.S. highway 20 that ran between the Sac County courthouse and monument park was blocked off by the Sac City Police Department for the very purpose of keeping the throngs that were in there to witness the dedication safe.
Though they had to do it while peeking out from beneath umbrellas people did show up and showed did go on.
What followed was a rousing half hour that was not altogether different from your standard Memorial Day ceremony. Dean Greave opened the ceremony and welcomed the visitors. Greave relayed to those attending a brief history of how the monument came into being. According to Greave, Sac Counties Veterans Service officer Peggy Dettmann came up with this idea in 2006. Letters were sent to all of the county service organizations asking them to participate in the planning and execution of getting the monument erected. It took many, many meetings and suffered a few setbacks before the idea was brought to realization.
Just like in a Memorial Day ceremony, after the welcome of visitors came the presentation of colors or flags. The colors were escorted by a special color guard made up of the Lake View V.F.W. Post #6537, Lake View Legion Post # 133, Auburn Legion Post #284, Lytton Legion Post #536, Sac City Legion Post, Sac City V.F.W. Post #590, Wall Lake Legion Post #262, Odebolt Legion Post #313, Schaller V.F.W. Post #4704 and, Early Post #325, and the 2nd Battery Iowa Light Artillery raised the flags. All of this was executed at the command of Bob Scheffler of Sac City V.F.W. Post #590 S Sac County native Russ Davis sang the National Anthem.
Giving the invocation was Pastor David Lyons. This is what he had to say.
As Pastor Lyons completed the invocation, Dean Greave again stood and introduced the monument committee members. Following is that list.
committee members
After the committee members were introduced, Russ Davis again took the stage to sing a medley of military songs. Following is that performance.
Before the benediction Peggy Dettmann delivered the closing remarks. Following is that audio.
After an entertaining rendition of God Bless America, again sung by the talented Russ Davis, Pastor David Lyons spoke the words dedicating the memorial.
The dedication of the Sac County Veteran’s Memorial concluded with taps.
As it was not an easy road for the veterans whose names are on the memorial, so was it also not an easy road to erect the memorial itself. The Sac County Veteran’s Memorial on the front lawn of the Sac County Courthouse stands today, not just as a monument to the Sac County veterans, but also as a symbol of persevering in the face of adversity.
Photos from the May 29_ 2011 Sac County Vet's Memorial Dedication
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