State American Legion Veterans Service Officer to present Waukon Memorial Day program address

Richard Anderson, State American Legion Veterans Service Officer, will serve as featured speaker at the 2016 Memorial Day Observance Program being held at Oakland Cemetery in Waukon Monday, May 30. Working out of Des Moines, Anderson represents veterans and their dependents from across the entire state when filing for veterans benefits and appeals against the Department of Veterans Affairs.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the first Memorial Day. Monday’s program at Oakland Cemetery in Waukon will commence following the traditional parade that begins at 9:45 a.m. in front of the Allamakee County Courthouse and marches its way to the cemetery. In the event of rain, the program will be held at the Waukon Banquet Center.
All Veterans are encouraged to participate, a ride will be provided for those Veterans unable to walk the parade route to the cemetery. Anyone wishing to enter a unit in the parade or seeking more information on the Memorial Day program in Waukon should contact Heather Homewood at the Allamakee County Veterans Affairs Office at 563-568-6135.

Volunteers are also needed to help set up the Avenue of Flags Saturday, May 28, beginning at 7 a.m.

PARADE GRAND MARSHALS
This year's Co-Grand Marshals for the Memorial Day Parade will be a pair of World War II Veterans who are Waukon natives, Dorothy Cunningham and Harriet Hanson.
Cunningham enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in August 1944, achieving the rank of Staff Sergeant as Chief of the Special Order Section before being discharged in July 1946. She later joined the active U.S. Army Reserves until her discharge in September 1963. During her service, Cunningham received the WWII Victory Medal, American Theater Ribbon and the Good Conduct Medal.

Following graduation from nursing school in December 1944, Hanson was commissioned in January 1945 as an Ensign in the United States Navy Reserve, serving at Great Lakes Naval Hospital in Chicago, IL for two years before volunteering for a six-month extension and ending up in Long Beach, CA prior to being released from active duty June 1947. Returning to civilian nursing at Colonial Hospital in Rochester, MN, Hanson was called back to active duty when the Korean War began but received a six-month deferment that outlasted the war and allowed her to remain in Rochester, MN for a nursing career of 38 years.

FEATURED SPEAKER
This year's featured Memorial Day speaker for the program in Waukon will be Richard Anderson, State Veterans Service Officer with the American Legion who works in Des Moines. Anderson served in the U.S. Army from 1963 to 1965, assigned to the Honest John Rocket Company at Fort Carson in Colorado for one year and participating in Desert Strike. He was then assigned to Fort Benning with the Little John Rocket Company, traveling to South Carolina and testing the conception of using helicopters in Vietnam.
Most of Anderson's working career was spent in the printing industry, having taught printing at Tech High School in Des Moines for 28 years. After retirement from teaching, he started working for the American Legion in July 1998 as a claims representative and became the Service Officer in 2001.

"It has been an interesting and rewarding career representing veterans with the Veterans Administration," Anderson shared. "I have represented with veterans who were at Iwo Jima, Battle of the Bulge, Vietnam veterans, and now we represent many veterans who have served in the National Guard and Reserves. We have great personnel working for the American Legion and it is our pleasure to work with our veterans and their families to get the benefits they deserve. And we work with many of the County Directors of Veteran Affairs in Iowa. We have a great relationship with those directors."