Veterans Day Ceremony Honors Young Vets of The Long Wars

“How do you thank someone for being far from home and there’s a crisis or death in their family and they’re not there for them? How do you thank those who’s knees are blown out, who can’t get a good night rest, the ones who can no longer talk or relate to other people?” Harold Martin said.

Martin spoke at Pasadena’s annual Veteran’s Day Ceremony held in front of City Hall organized by the Pasadena Veterans Day Committee with former Pasadena Mayors Bill Paparian and Bill Thomson playing a key role.

Complete with the Pasadena City College Pep Band, Junior ROTC, the Color Guard from Blair High School, and hotdogs from Pasadena Firefighters Association Local 809, Veteran’s of Pasadena were honored with a grand celebration. The ceremony concluded at 11:11 a.m. with a fly over by six jets.

“Doc” Martin as his students call him, said he could answer the looming question of who to thank the heroes who serve our country during his keynote address on the warm November day.

“Pasadena City College provides a chance to answer this question by putting into place the staff and services that enable them to make that transition. This is not 1973, this country learned to the dismal treatment handed out to veterans 40 years ago that the support needs to be social, institutional and financial and it needs to be sustained,” Martin said.

While the event recognized contributions by all veterans, it made a special highlight of the young veterans in the PCC Veteran Program that has been ranked eighth in the nation as a veterans friendly 2-year college by the Military Times. G.I. Jobs magazine also recognizes PCC as one of the leading colleges in the country doing the most to embrace America’s service members and veterans as students.

Martin said Community College is uniquely poised to provide support to veterans. The Veteran Program at PCC recognizes many veterans come back with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Traumatic Brain Injuries and need extra help to readjust to civilian life. Several services, programs and classes ease veterans into student life including a veteran cohort that takes a three-day camping trip.

Martin served in the Army for 20 years and now teaches a class called “Boots to Books” that helps veterans adjust to college and provides academic and psychological help. Some of his students he has helped said they were ‘born again civilians.’

He said the class will help to “Understand what you’ve been through, discern what you need to let go of, retain and build what you’ve got.”

Adam Cloys served in Iraq on three different tours and came back to school at PCC. He deeply appreciated the resource center and veterans club that helped him reintegrate.

“It’s been easier to make the transition because there’s a lot of other veterans that understand where I’m coming from and there’s a lot of support for us there, a lot of encouragement and camaraderie, and I know there’s no other place around like that. As a veteran and a student, PCC has really got it going on,” Cloys said.

Other speakers included Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard, L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, a Marine veteran, and PCC professor Harold Martin, with an invocation by Lt.Col. Rabbi Gilbert Kollin USAF of Pasadena Jewish Temple.

“The history of the United States is rich with the names of Pasadena residents who have sacrificed to assure our freedom and their sacrifices were given without thought of personal gain or glory on the battlefield, on the oceans or in the skies. The city is proud to be home to some of our nation’s best-known military leaders including General Ayres and General George S. Patton,” Bogaard said.