One Moment, Please… Honoring our Veterans

Thank you again to all of our veterans for their service to our country.

Veterans Day has come and gone, but we can never forget their sacrifices of so many men and women from our region.

Back in 2014, with the help of some amazing people on our team at the Fillmore County Journal, we started a project in which we had hopes of publishing our first-ever book dedicated to the veterans of Fillmore County, Minn. The name of the book became known as “Boots & Badges: Honoring Fillmore County Veterans.” This was a much bigger undertaking than we could have ever imagined. Families of veterans and veterans themselves stood in line, sometimes six in a line, waiting to have their pictures scanned for the book. If you’ve been in our entryway at the newspaper, you know three is a crowd.

In the end, we were humbled by the reaction of local veterans who appreciated this piece of history in which they will be forever recognized. The book is full of generations of family members who have served. Often times, photos become lost or damaged, and the names of people in pictures are forgotten. This book captured moments in history. A compilation of military service.

From there, we took the names of more than 3,400 veterans and published them in our Veterans Day section in the newspaper. That list of names has grown to well over 4,000 names in recent years.

Every year, after the section comes out in the newspaper, we are contacted by veterans who say their name was not included on the list. Due to confidentiality, the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs is not allowed to provide us with a list of veterans. The only way we can make sure this list is complete and accurate is if veterans or their families contact us and let us know that we can add their name to the list.

We want to make sure all of our veterans are honored and recognized for their service to this country. If you noticed a veteran wasn’t included on the list, please contact us now to make sure they will be included in next year’s Veterans Day section.

You can e-mail us at news@fillmorecountyjournal.com or call (507) 765-2151.

Again, thank you to all of our veterans for their service. We appreciate you.