Though it was nearly 74 years ago, Dean Quigley remembers the moment he decided to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. It was only three days after his 18th birthday.
“It was on a Sunday. We happened to be out on a football field playing touch football, and somebody came out from downtown and said the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor,” he recalled. “Everybody just scattered and went home to figure out what to do.”
Quigley, a World War II vet who will be 92 this December, is one of many local veterans who is celebrating Veteran’s Day this Wednesday.
For many, the day serves as a time for reflection and getting in touch with the friends and family members of those they got to know through their service.
Quigley said this year, he will be attending local Veteran’s Day programs happening in the community. His service took him to Myanmar (then Burma) and India. Aside from being on the fringes of enemy movement, he acknowledges “nobody shot at me” during his service. But as a sheet metal worker-turned-airplane mechanic during his military tenure, he said his work on the airplanes are what he remembers most. His G.I. bill allowed him to study electrical engineering at the University of Nebraska, leading to a 42-year career working in military aircraft programs, which included government contract jobs and working for Boeing.
“[Airplanes] were the key to where I went,” he said.
Kevin Jackson, an artillery officer with the Marines who will retire after 23 years of service this April, said he looks forward to using Veteran’s Day to reach out to his former military peers, be it via phone, group text or social media. Though he’s grateful for his service and quick to say he’d do it again if given the chance, he admits reflection can also be trying, and that each veteran handles it in their own way.
“It brings up a lot of emotions. You reflect, you think back to the good times and the bad times and there’s a lot of memories,” Jackson said. “It can be pretty powerful because it’s such a significant time in your life. To serve in combat is pretty much one of the most emotionally-intense experiences there are. [Veteran’s Day] is a day to think back of all the veterans. You remember so many of the experiences, the good and the bad.”
Serving in Somalia and doing two tours through Iraq, Jackson remembers the difficulty he experienced transitioning back to civilian life. As a member of the local VFW, he hopes to provide the support other veterans may need upon their return home.
“It’s definitely a pretty big adjustment,” he said. “When I got back from Iraq, I went basically from Iraq to being a civilian on Mercer Island within a month. It was definitely a big transition. I’m just very thankful to have a support network here, you just try to pass that forward. That’s why the veteran’s organizations are so important, so that those service members that continue to come back have people that have been through the experience and have people that, through their experiences, can help ease their transition back into society and make sure they’re getting all the support they need.”
Tony Clarke, a former officer and helicopter pilot with the U.S. Navy who supported military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, said he looks forward to spending Veteran’s Day with his wife and three young children.
“My kids, they’ve never seen me in uniform,” said Clarke, who now works for Amazon. “It’s something they’ll have to learn from memories of me telling stories.”
Every year, Clarke said Veteran’s Day focuses his attention and demands his time, which he happily gives. He comes from a military family, and still has a younger brother in the Navy.
“It’s just a really amazing fraternity of people,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been as close to a team as I had been in my two deployments to the Persian Gulf.”
