December 20, 1989 The Invasion of Panama

Author’s note: today’s Snippet is another of what I am calling an Op-Ed piece rather than just a historical item.

Veteran fraternal organizations have dates-of-service or location-of-service to qualify for membership. In looking at those dates-of-service for the American Legion, the shortest is from December 20, 1989 to January 31, 1990.

While this "war" was avery short time period, there were still over 2,130,000* US soldiers serving during a time of war, and therefore potentially in harms-way. Along with the 27,000 in the Panama Canal zone, there were over 2.1 million serving at other locations within the United States, its territories and bases around the world. Many of the men and women were living away from their families.

As one speaker noted this past Veterans’ Day, “For veterans, our nation was important enough to endure long separations from families, miss the births of children, freeze in sub-zero temperatures, or bake in jungles and deserts.”

He continued, “Military spouses endure career interruptions, frequent changes of address, and a disproportionate share of parental responsibilities. The children deal with changes in schools, separation from friends and, hardest of all, the uncertainty of whether or not Mom or Dad will ever come home again.”
[Schuyler County Veterans’ Day program, Watkins Glen, NY November 10, 2017, copy provided to author.]

During this year there have been quotes from Dewitt’s diaries about times of war. He shared his feelings for the three long years that Leland was in the service. We have also read the stories of men and women who served. Equally interesting are the stories of those who participated in the community life while waiting for news from the front, or a training ground. They waited for a letter, or in more recent times a phone call, an email, or maybe Skype time.

Throughout the history of the Town of Covert, and Seneca County, there have been men and women serving in the military. From World War II until the 1990s our communities have had large numbers of military personnel and their families living here. The friendships developed through school and community activities across these years is one of the reasons some of us are more acutely aware of the needs to military families.

To our active duty military personnel, and those who have served in the past, we say, thank you! To the families of those same people, we say thank you! Your support of your family members is recognized and appreciated.

Dewitt’s Diary December 20, 1949 and 1950

Tuesday, December 20, 1949

Temperature 32, clear.

Bunny and I tried for perch. I caught one pike and Bunny got some small perch.

Mild today.

Wednesday, December 20, 1950

Temperature 20 and cloudy. No wind this morning. It was a pretty nice day for Grandpa P’s funeral [Predmore, Edna’s father]. The flowers were beautiful, and he will be buried in Trumansburg. Edna’s mother is going down to Eva’s for a few days.

*https://dcas.dmdc.osd.mil/dcas/pages/Documents/WWT.pdf

^https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Panama