Time Capsule holds dog tags of area soldiers

Americas fallen heroes were honored across Moody County this past week during Memorial Day services that began shortly after the sun came up and commenced in community after community throughout the day.
Flandreau this year was host to a county-wide program that saw the opening of a time capsule sealed 35 years ago during the dedication of the Veterans Memorial Plaza at that time. In it, were the dog tags of Veterans present at that inaugural celebration.
Plans are to clean up the tags and have them on display for an undetermined amount of time at the Moody County Courthouse before resealing them along with other items in a new time capsule. That capsule, local officials hope will be opened during a celebration on July 4, 2076, Americas 300th birthday.
Any Veteran from Moody County who might want their dog tags added to the collection can reach out to Bart Sample or Marty Skroch at the Moody County Courthouse.
This years program closely followed the inaugural program 35 years ago in that very same space. Families who built the memorial were honored, including: the Bob Gill Family, Vernon Bechen Family, Shirley Chamley Family, George Billam Family, Ralph Hansen Family, Brad Oswald Family, Lee Rose Family, Paul Dahmen Family, Doug Austreim Family, Governor William Janklow Family, Jim and Kim Amdahl, Caryl Odenbrett, Jim Landis, Brian Bergjord, Roy Skroch, and Roger Fritz.
Speaking this past Monday was Ret. SFC Jeff Ross, the brother of local Veteran and teacher Scott Ross. The siblings served together in Afghanistan and have previously shared stories with the community about their time in service, as well as about what serving this nation has meant to them.
The program, for those who may have missed it, is available online on the Flandreau Fliers YouTube page.
Ross told the Moody County Enterprise that he hopes if nothing else, people took away from his speech that day that there are unbelievable sacrifices being made every day by those willing to lay down their lives for our freedoms. He hopes that all of us remember these people as we go about our daily lives.
From his speech:
Memorial Day, a day of Honor, a day of pain, and a day of Remembrance. For 250 years, American fighting men and women have been fighting and dying on the fields of battle around the world and on our own soil. From the 4,435 soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the Revolutionary war, to the 7,708 men and women killed in the War on Terror, over 1,250,000 Americans, including Civil War Confederates, have made the ultimate sacrifice on the fields of battle.
The bravery and sacrifice of the American fighting man was born in the American Revolution. Americans, consisting of businessmen, shopkeepers, farmers and other ordinary men stood against the most powerful military in the world at the time and through courage and sacrifice this country was born, along with the finest fighting men this world has ever seen. At no time in our history have our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines failed to answer when the country called. This call was answered even though these men and women knew they may never see their homes, family, friends and loved ones ever again.
How can a nation and its people honor that sacrifice? We Honor that sacrifice by remembering and holding close to our hearts the lives and death of those men and women. We must come to understand the fear and the courage it took to overcome that fear to perform their duty that led to the sacrifice they made. We may not know every name of every soldier that made the sacrifice through the years, but we KNOW who they were. They were Moms and dads, sons and daughters, neighbors and friends…they were AMERICANS and we MUST ALWAYS know and remember them.
We owe these men and women EVERYTHING