John McDermott's Reflections on his
experience from Veterans Day 2000
"The events of Veterans Day 2000 will
stay with me in my memories for the rest of
my life. I will share with you all how
the day unfolded...
On the morning of November 11th, we attended the annual Veterans Day breakfast
at the White House as the guests of Hershel
W. Gober, the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs. It was a wonderful
opportunity to meet new friends and renew
old acquaintances that I have had the pleasure of
meeting in my previous travels. Also in
attendance were Tom Hanks and Miss America
2000, Heather Renee French. It was
nice to see Heather again (after singing a
duet with her last year on Veterans Day) and
a pleasure to meet Tom Hanks, who of course,
is a talent extraordinaire. The
highlight was, of course, meeting the
President of the United States and chatting
with him for a brief moment.
After the White House breakfast, we then attended the
festivities at the Tomb of the
Unknowns. After the wreath laying, we listened
to a number of speeches followed
by a moving performance of a number of
selections by the United States
Navy Band
including a magnificent performance of the
National Emblem March for the procession of
colors. The sun was shining and the sky was blue
and the air was so full of Patriotism, it
was contagious... so much pride... an
absolutely wonderful
feeling.
At the invitation of Jan Scruggs, founder
and President of the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial Fund, Bill, Ray and I performed Tim
Murphy's "The Wall" at the
ceremony at The Wall. At the
conclusion of the performance Mr. J. Craig
Venter, PhD, President and CSO of Celera
Genomics Corporation gave the keynote
address...it was one of the most moving
speeches I
have ever heard. The speech was based on his tour of duty in
Vietnam and how that experience changed him
forever. I hope to post a copy
of that speech on this
site very soon.
(Click
here to see a copy of Mr. Venter's speech)
It was touching and
insightful and he is truly a remarkable
man. After Mr. Venter spoke, we each
lay a wreath at the wall on behalf of the
gold star mothers which was truly a great honor for
me. After the ceremony, I had the chance to spend some
time with a good number of the veterans and
the families of those people remembered on
the Wall who were in attendance at the
ceremony.
Our next stop of the day was the
groundbreaking ceremony for the World War II
Memorial. I felt like witness to
history and I look forward to helping in the
continuing efforts to raise funds for the
memorial and attending the opening of the
memorial in 2003.
Our final stop was a 5 PM mass at the Old
North Church in the North End of Boston at
an event to raise awareness and support in
Massachusetts for the National World War II
Memorial. I had the opportunity
to sing two pieces at the service, 'Ave
Marie' and 'America the Beautiful'. It
was simply an overwhelming feeling to sit in
the balcony of this magnificent piece of
American history. The Old North Church
was where, on April 18, 1775, the sexton
Robert Newman, climbed the steeple and
briefly displayed two lanterns that touched
off the War for Independence in the United
States. If any of you would like more
information about the church, go to
www.oldnorth.com.
Another Veterans Day has passed and I hope
everyone remembers to not let another day go
by without taking the time to thank, help or
acknowledge our veterans and seniors.