Patriotic program Friday includes video segments of area veterans

A patriotic performance Friday at the First Church of the Nazarene will include video segments from veterans and family members, patriotic music and a guest appearance by Betsy Ross, all coordinated by the Dramatization Force Association.

On video Monday, Charles Thompson, a Missouri Veterans Home resident, shared with DFA director Michael Toeniskoetter a World War II story that had a dramatic effect on his life.

"Aboard the Philippine Sea, on the main deck a plane was coming straight at us," he said. "Our men shot it down, or else we might have been in the middle of it."

Proud of his 20-year Navy career, Thompson wears his military uniform every chance he gets and will do so Friday.

"I've been around the world and seen a lot of countries, Thompson said. "I'm glad I'm in the U.S. where you can do what you want when you want to."

Charles Werner, another Missouri Veterans Home resident who served in the Army during WWII, said his America is a place where, "we are able to do practically everything in our power to better ourselves as long as we don't cross the law. Other nations don't have that. We can continue, even at our age, to better ourselves. My advice for younger generations is to know and understand what we have here. We have the freedom to do what we can with our lives. We must keep that freedom and use our knowledge to do that. We can't be specific because we don't know what's coming up."

Toeniskoetter said the DFA production centered on Independence Day was important because without that holiday there would be no others.

"Sometimes people forget that," he said. "Sure, it's about firecrackers, but mostly it's about us becoming a country and us being free."

Situated between patriotic banners, the backdrop at the veterans home cafeteria where the DFA video segment was created, Werner told a story of how he learned to hold onto his rifle.

"In basic training we were out marching and came up to a break. I rested my rifle against a tree and then took a nap. My commanding officer was holding my rifle over me when I woke up. I soon found myself chopping a lot of potatoes. It took me a while to get into his good graces. He taught me to always hold onto that rifle."

Werner, who grew up in a small town, said, "What the Army did for me and most others was teach us discipline. It put us into cities and foreign countries. We learned a lot real quick."

Ninety-three-year-old Missouri Veterans Home resident Mike Stafford was already married with two children when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

"I enlisted for the draft and by the time I was drafted they had already done all the dirty work," he said. "Japan had already surrendered."

Stafford served in the Philippines and Japan. "I was assigned to General MacArthur's headquarters," he said. Stafford was put in a motorpool where he drove a truck and led convoys. Stafford never met MacArthur but said he saw him at a distance.

"I love America. America means everything," Stafford said. "We don't have to ask anyone if we can do anything. Freedom is not free. We had to sacrifice a lot for that freedom."

cpagano@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 133

Want to go?

What: Free Fourth of July patriotic program

Where: First Church of the Nazarene, 2601 Independence St., Cape Girardeau

When: 6 p.m. Friday