Honors across ages

CLOVIS - The theme was "No Veteran Walks Alone," and that held up Saturday during the Veterans Day parade in Clovis. Not only did veterans walk and march in company, plenty of others rode on floats or horses to make for a spirited promenade down a Main Street lined with residents and visitors from out of town.

Locals braved the wind and cold in the morning, many bundled in winter wear and waving miniature American flags to make for what the parade chairman said was one of the better turnouts he'd seen in a few years.

There were 54 entries, among them Cub Scouts, Clovis High School Air Force Junior ROTC and Marching Band, Civil Air Patrol, United States Marine Corps, Wreaths Across America and a 1925 Model T.

Nita Gillespie came from Virginia to see her sister, Jane Onks, and the two set up in front of the library and across from the courthouse for a good view of the parade and its opening speakers. They also saw plenty of children - and a few adults - scrambling in the road after candy dispensed from the floats, and they even got to see the wind blow the caps off some of the JROTC students as they passed by.

Sanford Landers lives around the way on Gidding Street, close enough to hear the marching band's reminder that the parade was under way. He said the cold weather Saturday morning reminded him of the winter thaw in his hometown of Buffalo, New York. Landers joined the Air Force in 1962 and retired out of Cannon Air Force Base some 21 years later.

"The theme was 'no veteran walks alone,' said John Montano with the Joint Veterans Council of Curry/Roosevelt County. "Well, there's so many veterans out there that have problems and they don't know where to go to get them taken care of. As veterans, we need to help our brothers and sisters and help them any way we can. A lot of them sacrificed their lives so that we may have a better world."

Frank Chevalier is trying to help his fellow veterans in his position as commander of Clovis' Amvets Post 14. He was born local and joined the Army in 1984 at age 18, but was discharged four years later after a car accident while stationed in Schweinfurt, Germany. That was enough time for him to learn to appreciate the camaraderie of the service, and in a way he hopes to keep that mutual support alive by helping to connect his peers with the information and resources they need for disability and other benefits.

Chevalier said he enlisted after his grandmother "gave him the boot," and Joe Dawson said he was also in need of something to do when he graduated Clovis High School in 1968. The war in Vietnam was unpopular then, and he saw people facing ridicule and criticism after serving. All the same, he's glad for the three years he spent in the Army after enlisting the week after graduation.

"I never really thought much of it. I needed to do something when I finished school," he said. "But when you sign that dotted line, you put your life on the line. Whether you see combat or not, there's still that possibility."

Of six other classmates that enlisted along with Dawson, one did not return from Vietnam and his name is on the memorial outside Clovis' library. As for Dawson, he was stationed at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska, but returned to civilian life in Clovis at age 21, working then for the railroad until the early 1990s.

"I'm just trying to figure out, was it even worth it?" he said during an interview Friday with The News. "It was a good experience, I made some good friends. And I was glad I served because they seem to recognize vets more now than back then."