On Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 9 a.m. Minnesota Army National Guard Sargaent Garrett Rasmussen delivered the Veterans Day address at JCC Middle School in Lakefield.
Rasmussen is a Lakefield native having been born and raised on a farm just eight miles south of town. He attended Pleasantview Elementary School, both Okobena and Jackson Middle Schools and graduated from JCC High School in 2002,
After high school he attended South Dakota State University in Brookings, S.D. majoring in Ag. Business. It was during his second year in college that his focus changed and his life as well.
“I was seeing the news reports from both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars almost everyday,” he said. “Our troops were fighting to protect the United States and our freedoms and I thought to myself what have I done to deserve my freedom. I am able to do what they are doing over there. That was probably the biggest motivator for me in joining the guards then and I also needed a summer job.”
So Rasmussen joined the Minnesota Army National Guard B battery 1-125th company of Jackson/Fairmont in the spring of 2004. That summer he took basic training at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.
“I graduated basic training in October,” he stated. “I returned to college in the spring of 2005. In the fall of that year my unit, Bravo 1-125 based in Jackson/Fairmont was called to active duty. We left for Camp Shelby in Mississippi for six months of training. In April of 2006 we were deployed to Iraq for a year. After our deployment we found out our stay would be extended by four months. Our total time in Iraq was to be 16 months. But our deployment was 22 months long that was a record for any unit prior to that time.”
After returning home Rasmussen returned to college earned his degree in Ag. Business and since has been working with his dad on the family farm.
“I have been in the Minnesota National Guard for five and a half years,” he added. “Now the Minnesota National Guard currently has over 2,000 troops deployed overseas and over 19,000 have been deployed to 33 different countries overseas since 2001. That means there are many veterans in the state of Minnesota. It is these veterans of conflicts past that we honor today.”
Then Rasmussen asked the audience if anyone remembered what the first veteran’s day used to be called and noted that the first Armistice Day was Nov. 11, 1918 to honor the veterans of World War I. He also noted that in 1954 it was changed to Veteran’s Day to honor all veterans from all the wars – World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, Desert Storm, the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan.
“So we honor the veterans,” he said. “What Veteran’s Day means to me is that we remember what veterans have done and say thank you to them for putting on a uniform and protecting our country. Thank them for our freedom. It is because of them that we enjoy many freedoms like the freedom of speech, the right to bear arms and the freedom of religion just to name a few.”
Rasmussen asked how many people in the audience knew a veteran and after a show of many hands encouraged them to thank those veterans for the sacrifices they had made.
“Many veterans sacrificed time away from their families and their homes to protect our country, others made the ultimate sacrifice giving their lives for our country,” he stated. “It is these sacrifices that we need to remember each Veteran’s Day.”
