By Gary Meyer

About 100 people gathered at the Cody Prosser Veterans Memorial in Frazier Mountain Park to thank American veterans who have sacrificed their lives in service of their country.

During the opening invocation, Pastor Fred Rose said that he wished local school students and administrators were present at the memorial so they could see it and know the sacrifice that has been made in the community. “Freedom is not free,” Rose said they needed to understand.

Terrence Alexis of National Cement told a story of Vietnam war helicopter pilot Ed Freeman who flew into heavy enemy fire and rescued soldiers who would otherwise have died.

Musical group Yesteryear, played Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land and God Bless America. Singer and Vietnam war veteran Conrad Vietnam war veteran Conrad Schwarm said he had spoken with Simba Roberts during the morning. “Simba sends his love and wishes he could be in two places at once,” Schwarm said. Roberts has been master of ceremonies for many veterans’ events at the Cody Prosser Veterans Memorial in the past.

Richard Sheffield announced a tree planting at the Prosser Memorial following the service. Sheffield said the planting was in honor of Cody Prosser and to commemorate the death of Osama bin Laden.

Army Staff Sergeant Brian Cody Prosser was killed in Afghanistan on December 5, 2001, one of the first Americans to fall in what has become known in ‘The War on Terror’ after the September 11, 2001 attack on the Twin Towers in New York City.

This is part of the June 03, 2011 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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